There In The Disappering Light
by GleeGeneration23
Summary: Post Breaking Dawn. The Cullen's (and Jacob) have relocated to Vancouver. Another half-vampire might be the one answer to the one thing that Rosalie has ever wanted. And the one thing that Emmett has ever wanted was to give Rosalie her happy ending. Though even immortality is never that simple. AU.
1. Born Into Bad News

**Hi, so here is another Twilight story and another Rosalie and Emmett based story which I have enjoyed planning for and I hope this being from the point of view of an OC is ok. I know that this chapter doesn't give too much away of the plot and It might be a bit long winded but I hope that you enjoy this chapter and this story in which I hope there will be twenty seven chapters long. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter, this story and the character of Lena. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**And I will endeavour to update this story sooner rather than later. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Post Breaking Dawn. The Cullen's (and Jacob) have relocated to Vancouver. Another half-vampire might be the one answer to the one thing that Rosalie has ever wanted. And the one thing that Emmett has ever wanted was to give Rosalie her happy ending. Though even immortality is never that simple.

* * *

Chapter 1-Born Into Bad News

A day at the new school sees a confusing conundrum in the form of a fifteen year old kid who surprises the Cullen's.

* * *

The snow was just lying thick on the ground. It was November. It was Vancouver and an exceptionally cold winter.

Lena Rodgers wrapped her coat around her and shivered a little. Usually she didn't feel the cold but there was something about this winter that made her very bones ache. It was like she was going to catch a cold and yet she felt like she was nowhere near it. Her coat which was second hand and her shoes which were wearing thin were covered in the mush of the snow and the dirt.

She was fifteen years old.

She was halfway homeless.

She was always hungry.

The school in which she had enrolled herself in began at nine in the morning. The halfway house she lived in kicked her out at eight thirty and she spent half an hour picking at a stale bagel in the school cafeteria and wishing that she had something, _something _more than what she had in front of her.

She didn't know why.

Lena had always felt like she had glitch in her brain. She was fifteen and she had been bounced around the foster system since she had been born. No placement had ever seemed to last long. No family had ever been the perfect fit and after the last one Lena had simply given up and had decided that she was safer on her own.

It wasn't that she was unlovable…not that she thought so…but then she thought that there was something wrong with her, some sort of glitch in her brain. That wouldn't surprise her. Lena knew that there was something wrong with her and as she stirred the coffee that she hadn't really wanted she thought that, that analogy of her life was true. She had been an enigma since birth.

She was tall, blonde—the kind of blonde that girls would pay a significant amount of money to be and her hair fell halfway down her back in a silvery sheet of platinum. she was skinny, far too skinny for most social workers liking and nothing that seemed to be given to her that increased her appetite. Her eyes were a dark blue so dark it could have been black almost and there were always shadows under her eyes despite the fact that she slept like the dead. She had high cheekbones the kind that she knew from reading the magazines could cut glass and she had the eyelashes that were so thick and black that mascara was a waste of time despite her genetics. She had known no mother or no father but her skin was a perfect white and sometimes when she was out in the sunlight she thought she could see a slight shimmer to her skin that she hoped came from a natural glow and a good amount of body lotion.

She could go from weeks of not wanting anything to eat and yet days when she used whatever money she could get from whatever foster family she was staying with and she would stuff her face with pizza and Chinese take outs until she felt so sick and bloated she wouldn't be able to get out of her bed to her place.

Her 'Place' was a small abandoned storage unit where she had picked the lock and she had made into her small space. That small space included a mattress where nine times out of ten she slept there. The family she was currently spending time with were about as nameless and faceless as they could be, and Lena knew they felt the same about her. It made the relationship easier. They cashed the cheques and she got a good amount of allowance from it and they spent as minimal of time together as they could contend with.

It was a beautiful system where neither one of them felt like they had to pretend. Actually, considering some of the places Lena had spent in her fifteen years she felt like she had done rather well with this nameless, faceless couple. Especially considering the random and annoying growth spurts that seemed to come out of nowhere and had for the moment, thankfully stopped.

* * *

There was a pause where she sat there in the small cafeteria at the local high school and thought to herself (not for the first time) that this hunger that had riddled through the ages through her very body would not go away. She reached into her bag and flipped out a very old battered copy of Romeo and Juliet. It had been the one thing she had of her birth mother and it was evident by both the name on the first page and the blood splattered across the edge of the Second Act. Lena knew it was blood. In an uncanny way she knew it was blood, she could smell the rust that she knew other people smelt and then under that she could smell notes of something strange, like vanilla and coconut. The thing that scared her about that damn book was that she had no idea why she could smell that when it came to blood, or why she felt so damn hungry when she smelt it.

Also, Lena was a fan of the movie and not the book, in her opinion Juliet needed a damn good reality check and Romeo was a romantic lunatic who changed from woman to woman like some sort of teenage boy who changed his Facebook status.

And then there was the other thing.

The _unmentionable _thing.

The _unmentionable _thing was that thing in her brain. The glitch that she'd had since birth and she had kept to herself because…she wasn't stupid to go around announcing that she had a thing that made her able to read minds.

And yeah she got what that sounded like. But Lena knew that she could read and communicate with people telepathically. She knew that she could reach into people's minds and turn them against them. When she had been a kid she had watched it happen. Other people's thoughts however were so muddy that she couldn't stand to listen to them so long. She knew that she was dealing with something that was unnameable, untraceable and dangerous, so, so dangerous that she didn't want to name what she could do.

It was easier for her to imagine that she was mad. Far easier to imagine that the sense of blood, the hunger that she constantly felt, the fact that she had to leave the room whenever someone cut themselves, the fact that she never seemed to get ill despite how cold she sometimes felt, the slight shimmer to her skin despite the fact that she changed body lotions from time to time…and the other thing.

She had to believe that it was a sickness that could be cured, that there was someone else out there with the same thing because the alternative was something that she couldn't begin to imagine. Something that was better left unsaid and unmentioned. She felt the urge to throw up again as she thought of that smell that was on the book that had once belonged to the woman that she knew was her mother, _Rebecca Rodgers. _

Such a small name and such a strange legacy that Lena had been left with.

Curiosity had driven her to do her own research and yet nothing had been found.

Not that she had much to go for.

Most mornings Lena was in the cafeteria and most mornings she went without breakfast and the mornings went without change. The snow still stuck to the ground, she could still hear the thoughts of the idiotic teenage girls next to her wondering about the length of their eyelashes and weather that shade of lipstick really went with that shade of nail polish and she tuned out the teenage boys and their muted conversations about sex and parties and weather or not some football team that she had no idea about would win their next match and weather the school's team would go to State…whatever that meant when something happened that changed the status quo.

It would change the rest of her life forever.

* * *

The doors to the cafeteria opened and she felt that shiver down her spine before she saw them. There was seven of them that came in…so perfect and so beautiful that even Lena (who never really believed in looks—though she knew she was beautiful) felt a kick to her self-esteem. There were three women and three men and Lena thought that they were kidding themselves if they were pretending to be High Schoolers because they looked so much older and so much wiser. As if they had experience under them the likes as which Lena could never begin to understand.

She stared at them unashamedly. To be fair she wasn't the only one.

It was clear that they were couples, they broke off into three pairs so easily it seemed that nothing would penetrate that group and one who was on his own and couldn't have looked different but was somehow a part of that group. And all of them were different in their appearances and yet at the same time, the same.

There were three men, one with bronze hair and golden eyes, one who could have been a body builder and a serious contender at the Olympics for weight lifting and one with blondish hair who seemed to be constantly on the alert for some threat that wasn't there in the dismal cafeteria. The other man was the exact opposite. He was tall with russet skin and dark hair, he was wearing shorts—in November and yet he didn't look like the cold affected him at all. On his arm was the beginnings of a tattoo that she couldn't make out but that she was sure was tribal.

The women were as different as it was humanly possible. One had short hair and dark eyes. She looked like she had never seen a hairbrush in her life and she sat next to the one whose eyes scanned the cafeteria as if she never wanted to leave him. The woman sat next to the bronze haired man had dark hair falling to her waist and a figure that would probably send most of the teenagers in this place into a state of nervous collapse. The other woman was sat next to the brawny man and all Lena could see of her was the blonde hair that fell from head to waist in soft curls the kind of hair that even Lena with her own mess of golden tresses would envy.

The bronze man caught her eye and then he ducked down as if confused by something. Lena ducked down to her own book and waited…she had no issue learning about Max's video game marathon over the weekend and she no issue listening to Simone and Karen bitch about their week.

But there was something about these newcomers, she could hear it. Couldn't hear the thoughts that she knew they were thinking.

And then all of a sudden she could.

It was so clear and crisp that she nearly fell of her seat in shock.

The only one she couldn't get a read on was the brown haired woman sat with the bronze haired man. She was like running up against a brick wall and Lena knew that in her mind she could pound on that door until she was sick with a headache but nothing would come of it.

_"__Edward's such an ass. Honestly. Destroying the TV just because I asked weather or not Bella was still in her newborn phase. I mean seriously three years doesn't diminish a sex drive…I mean me and Rose…" _

That came from the man with muscles for Canada. Lena had to pull out of that conversation because felt slightly sick at the images that were being shown. She wanted to scream at the clarity of the images that she was facing. In her whole life Lena had never heard thoughts as clear as these. It was like living on a shitty speaker for life and then changing it to a brand new one and being surprised at the noise that was coming through.

She listened until she could distinguish 'Edward'.

Of course he had to be the bronze boy.

_"__I wonder if Nessie is settling in? I do hope she doesn't shock her teachers. I suppose quoting Romeo and Juliet in French at the age of ten doesn't help matters…but…Gods Bella looks pretty, how she doesn't see it astounds me. I am the luckiest vampire to ever live. I have Bella Cullen as my wife. I really wish that Emmet would stop thinking of Rosalie like that." _

Lena spat a mouthful of coffee out over her lap. She wiped it away her eyes streaming. Nobody seemed to notice. She was pretty unnoticeable.

No fucking way.

She reached into the channel that was her mind and connected it to Edward Cullen's.

He stiffened and she knew she had done what she had promised herself she would never do before. her eyes flicked once more to the blonde woman and then she caught Edward's eye as he looked for the first time at her.

_"__Hello Edward" _ She said into her mind and what she hoped was into his. It wasn't like there was textbook when it came to this sort of thing.

Edward Cullen fell off his chair.

* * *

**And there you are, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. **

**Next Chapter-Lena Rodgers and the Cullen's come face to face and Lena learns just what she is.**


	2. Butterscotch

**Hi, so here is the second chapter of this story. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I will endeavour to publish the next one sooner rather than later which does see another point of view and some plot beginning to develop. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing in this story other than the character of Lena is mine. **

**Please Read and Review **

**And there are some trigger warnings in this chapter for massive amounts of blood loss and vampire murder. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 2-Butterscotch

Lena Rodgers and the Cullen's come face to face and Lena learns just what she is.

* * *

The second Edward Cullen fell off his chair Lena ducked her face down to the book and resisted the urge to giggle uncontrollably because that was just _too _funny. The brunette was immediately at his side but Edward Cullen's eyes were flying across the room his mind a jumble of manic words and several words that were not polite in the slightest. Lena kept her face straight a perfect picture of innocence pretending that she was reading the scene where Mercutio was killed. She was pretty confident that Edward Cullen couldn't read her mind but that didn't mean that she wanted to give him any chances.

Somehow despite knowing what this thing she could do was she knew that she could control it, flex it out like a muscle. And that had to mean something she knew.

She wasn't that good thought. She could feel those yellow eyes stare at her even as he climbed back into her chair and passed it off as a joke, a mistake, an accident, even though she knew what he was and the simple fact that his kind didn't have accidents. His brothers and sisters thoughts could attest to that. In fact the one called Emmett seemed to be very vocal over why his brother had fallen.

As innocently as she could she picked up her bag and stuffed her book in it. She was hyperaware that Edward Cullen was watching her and she knew he was trying to get inside her head. More fool him. This gift was like second nature to her. She knew when she had to keep someone out…but…but he was difficult, he was like an incessant axe in her head badgering on the door. Not even five minutes in and she was already going to get a headache. And more to the point she wasn't entirely sure whether or there was a range on both Edward Cullen's gift and her own. Actually she was thinking that she had been the only one in the world who could do what she did. The fact that there was someone else who could infiltrate minds was rather infuriating.

It was like ordering one of the best pair of shoes in the world and then finding out that somebody had gotten he knock off for cheaper and they looked better.

Edward Cullen's mouth twisted then into something that resembled a smile. Lena took that to mean she had dropped whatever mental barricade she had. Her temples throbbed a little as she swayed with the relief. Damn him.

_"__So…vampire…no I'd smell it. Half…she does look a bit like Nessie, clearly gifted, no like Jacob, Good Lord if witches exist Emmett and Jacob are going to be unbearable, is she a witch?" _

_"__No, I am not a witch" _

Edward Cullen started a little, the brunette was getting angsty she could tell. Lena knew she was minutes away from jumping to her feet, she wasn't the only one, the blonde next to the pixie was staring around as if seeing threats in the wall. Even the other blonde was looking around. Lena saw enough of her face to see that she was perhaps the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen. The woman could have been carved out of marble.

_"__Can you hear me?" _

_"__Yeah and you can talk to me, which is strange, most people don't do that, can't do that. This whole thing is strange. Also you might wanna calm the brunette down because she looks ready to murder someone, mostly me. And I didn't survive this long to be taken out by some Amazonian wearing jeans that have seen better days" _

Edward Cullen blinked and then pulled out like he had been obsessed in his own head which to be fair he probably was. Lena took in him turning his head towards the darker haired woman and the rest of them leaning forwards as one and then she bolted out the door and to the only safe refuge she had in this shithole.

The library.

* * *

Lena was sat on the ground breathing in through her nose and resisting the urge to sink to the ground and pressed her forehead to the undoubtably filthy floor. Edward Cullen was trying to find her again and this time he was not being nice. She could hear him trying to spark a one way connection and it was like he was brushing two forms of electricity against each other without something tying them together. Lena felt like screaming, she was cold and the hunger that she kept abated was under her skin again like an itch that she couldn't get rid of.

"Hello" said a musical kind of voice to her left.

She turned and saw the blonde woman staring at her. Nine times out of ten she Lena didn't give a shit about her appearance but she had a feeling that whenever she looked at this woman she was going to get that hot swoop of inadequacy. She had a face that was framed with waves of blonde hair a shade darker than Lena's platinum and eyes of molten butterscotch, she was wearing blue jeans and a jumper of a soft chocolate brown and her legs were encased in high heeled black boots that came up to her knee. Lena really wanted those boots.

It didn't matter though she was still otherworldly.

No. _Vampire. _

"Hello" Lena said pulling her own knees up to her chest and staring at her. She could run but she didn't know much about what this woman was and there was a very good chance that she could be caught, killed and buried before lunchtime. And also it was snowing and the library was warm.

"May I sit down?"

Then without waiting for a reply she slid down to the dirty floor opposite her in jeans that probably cost more than some people earned in a month and stared at Lena as if she was an interesting book. Lena stared back at her but she couldn't help but feel like something was crawling over her skin again.

"Edward was looking for you" she said quietly after a pause.

Lena seriously considered playing dumb. She really did. But then she realised that it wouldn't make much difference, she had delayed the inevitable beautifully but there was no point in hiding it anymore. She had to turn and face what she was into…of all the days to stupidly pretend that she wasn't a normal teenager it had to be today of all days.

"I know" she said finally reaching up and tapping the side of her head. "He has all the sensitivity of a blunt object"

The woman let out a small giggle that sounded like the tinkling of little bells. Lena stared at her for a second longer before dropping her eyes to her shoes.

"So it is true. You can read minds"

"I…I don't know…I can read them and communicate with people in their minds if I can connect to them. It's a little bit like a two way connection. One side has to work for the other. And with normal people I usually can't connect. But today…today you all came in and everything was so _clear _and so perfect, it was like seeing for the first time. And now I know what you are, and your going to kill me"

The woman's eyes went wide.

"Oh were not going to do that. You don't think that Edward would allow that to happen, he has to go home to his daughter after all. Nessie is going to be so thrilled, even after she learnt about others like her she was convinced she'd have to go to South America to see them. Now your in her backyard…but tell me, does you family know? Did your mother survive?"

Lena stared at her as her brain slowly began to work around what this woman was saying.

"Another what?"

"Another half-vampire"

Lena stated at her for what felt like a very long time and something in her expression must have given it away that she had no idea what she was going on because slowly the light in the woman's eyes dimmed a little. It did nothing to diminish her beauty but it was there.

"You didn't know?"

"Until half an hour ago I didn't know that vampire's existed"

"But surely you must have been drinking blood?"

Lena dropped her book and then stood up. She had no idea what was going on but she could feel the rising panic in the back of her throat that had nothing, _nothing _to do with the burning feeling that she had long since grown accustomed to. The woman rose up two and there was something in her stance that made the panic in her increase ten fold.

"Look, you don't want to do anything here, too many people are watching, why don't you come and meet my family and we can sit down and talk about this, I promise you nobody is going to hurt you"

But Lena could see the gentle tone or the pleading look or the wise words that she would later come to understand a little bit better, all she could see was the very foundations of her life coming down amongst her and when she took two steps backwards she promptly tripped into her bag and knocked several books over the shelves. The woman immediately stood a little bit straighter at the attention and reached into her tan leather bag for a pen and a scrap of paper.

"Look, you don't wanna talk now. That's ok but please don't hesitate to reach out, the sooner you understand this the easier it will be and I know it must seem like the world's turning on you but it's not." She thrust the paper at Lena and Lena wanting nothing more to do but to be away from her grabbed it and ran ignoring the looks and the mutters and the whispers that, that new foster kid had lost it and had run away from the hottest chick in school as if she had burned her.

How she got home Lena was not sure. She was dimly aware that she was putting one foot in front of the other and she was unaware until she got there that she was not where her private place was, where she could sit and read but at her house where she slept and that she was in the door before she could stop herself.

Everything seemed so much more heightened now she was inside. She could see everything and feel everything and yet while everything was the same nothing could be the same ever again.

A Half-Vampire.

And what was it she was told?

Blood. Drinking blood.

And now she was thinking of that. Of ripping apart the soft skin of someone's throat and sinking her teeth in them and that was so disturbing she had to sit down on the stairs.

But now she was thinking of it she couldn't unthink it. She had no choice but to continue but the hunger in her was so strong she couldn't breathe. There was steak in the fridge, raw steak she knew and she reached for it without warning, stuffing it inside her face it was good, it was so good she couldn't help the blood dripping down her chin and she drank it straight out of the plastic tub. But it wasn't enough, it wasn't nearly enough.

"What the…"

She pulled her head back out of the fridge blood still dripping down her chin.

Her foster parents were both stood there both of them with horrified expressions on their faces but Lena's eyes were driven to the image of the scent in the room. The rosewater scent mixed with the tang of metal. The scent of what she wanted now that that woman had opened up the doors in her mind.

The banging in her head was there. Edward Cullen had not stopped trying to speak to her. She screamed with the pain and the hunger though weather or not it was in her head or out loud she couldn't tell.

But then she launched.

Despite the fact that she was fifteen and about a hundred and fifteen pounds either way she was strong. Her hands came out and she had snapped two necks without even trying. Both bodies were at the floor at her feet but before she could comprehend the death of two people who had never been anything but kind to her and who had left her alone most of the time like she had wanted, she had bent over and had ripped the throat of her nameless, faceless foster Dad and was drinking his blood like he was a ragdoll.

It was the nicest thing that she had ever tasted. It was sweet and salty all at the same time. It was warm and spilling over her chin and jumper and messing up her cheeks and hair. But the more she gulped the more she found she needed more. She needed more than this. She needed to drink more of this thing that she had been denied for most of her life.

Soon he was dry, she could taste it. She rattled him furiously and then threw his body like a discarded piece of rubbish into the TV where it fell over sparking and crashing to the floor. She grabbed her foster mother and she did the exact same thing hugging the body and drinking it rocking back and forwards the smell of perfume still in her nose as well as the scent of blood.

When she was done she threw that body to the side too. She curled her fingers into the carpet and thought hard about what to do. She had strength, so much strength and with this she could feel the blood pumping around her, what was to stop her from going out and finding someone else to drink?

And then the guilt hit her.

She had _killed_ two people like some starving animal. And she wanted to do it again.

_Monster. Monster. Monster. _Her brain hissed to her and she rocked back and forwards watching the blood spill onto the carpet on her hands and jeans and jumper. She didn't dare look at herself in the mirror just sat and rocked looking at the two dead bodies of two people who had taken her in when nobody else would.

Now she sat there and watched for a long time as the bodies got cold and the sky got dark tears mingling in with the blood drying on her face and teeth and the vomit that had come from somewhere at some point, mingling in with everything that had just happened.

It was as if she had reached the end of a very long stretch of marathon running when she sat up her body aching with having been in one position so long. She forced herself to crawl on her stomach so that she could reach her bag where she had dumped it when she had come in and reach around for the crumpled bit of paper. There was a pause where she stood there looking at it. The name and the number of the one person who had been kind to her. the one person who had seemed like she had understood what it was that she was going through, the one person who was like her and who was had been kind to her despite the fact that she had ran away like some frightened idiot.

She scrabbled again for her phone. It took her two attempts to wipe her mouth and another one to get the phone number right. She dropped it and picked it up again with trembling hands holding it to her ear and feeling another whimper in her throat that she tried to choke back down.

The phone rang two times and then it picked up.

"Hello" it was the same musical voice of that blonde woman who had sat down next to her. Right now it was the best thing she had ever heard in the world. Right now she was the safest thing that she had heard or could imagine right now. She looked down at the now bloodstained paper.

"Rosalie?"

"Yes"

"This is Lena…the Half-Vampire—" she choked off the rest of the sentence and choked back the bile rapidly rising in her throat.

"I err…I really need your help. I…I need to…err…I think I did something really fucking bad"

* * *

**And there you are. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I will try and update as soon as I can. **

**Next Chapter-Rosalie gets a phone call, Lena gets an ally, the Cullen's might be getting a new member of the family. Different points of view from the previous two chapters. **


	3. What We Have Here

**Hi, so here is another chapter. Thank you all so much for reading and commenting on the previous two. It really does mean a lot. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Again some Trigger Warning in this chapter for vampire blood related actions. **

**Please Read and Review and let me know what you think. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 3-What We Have Here.

Rosalie gets a phone call, Lena gets an ally, the Cullen's might be getting a new member of the family. Different points of view from the previous two chapters.

* * *

The new house in Vancouver was lovely. Esme had excelled herself. Not that she ever let them down when it came to houses. Esme had been thrilled to get the chance to rebuild another one. The one in Forks had been used as inspiration in the sense that there was a lot of glass. One side was pure glass and the rest was all wooden floors and balconies and smooth polished walls in light paint. There was a separate house that was for Edward, Bella and Renesmee and also a small bungalow for that mutt and his friends if any of them came down (though Rosalie prayed that they did not) and two large walk in closets for Alice. Rosalie and Emmett had their own space upstairs decorated in the soft colours that Rosalie had picked out and Emmett had let her as long as they had a flat-screen on the wall and a games room downstairs. Her husband was very easy to please when it came to moving houses. It was Rosalie, Esme and Alice who were the perfectionists in this house. God knows Bella couldn't care less if her house had a walk in closet or not.

Right now however they were all sat in the main room which was tasteful decorated in tones of light yellow. Carlisle had called a family meeting after the knowledge that there was another half-vampire at the school. Renesmee and Jacob had gone back to the house Jacob a good distraction from the small girl who had thought for so long that she was the only one of her kind.

"I never thought that there was going to be one in Vancouver" Carlisle said from where he was stood in the centre of the room. "I thought Nahuel's father was the only vampire other than Edward who had conceived with a human woman"

"Her father might not have known he was doing it" Jasper pointed out. "It's not something that's widely known, even the Volturi has not told the general populous of vampires that such a thing is possible. Before Renesmee we all thought it was impossible. And we wouldn't know, would we? Alice can't see half-vampires."

"And she had no idea that she was a half-vampire?" Edward asked from where his head was in Bella's lap. "She had no idea we even existed until you told her?" this was directed at Rosalie who turned away from the window and back to the group.

"No" she said softly thinking of that look of confusion turning to slow terror that had been Lena's face as she had processed the news that she was something out of this world. "She had no idea."

"How's she been surviving then? She'd have needed blood. Renesmee needed it from the womb, she still needs it now. How has she been surviving this long with half of her nutrition missing?" Bella asked her to face a mask of confusion. "I remember the feeling, I was starving for so long"

"She must have been on human food. But it's a concern, now she knows what she is she poses a danger to us all. If a student cuts themselves in the cafeteria and she's there or falls over in gym class and she now knows there's a justification for the way she's feeling then she's going to be a danger to us all. We only just got free of the Volturi and they don't forgive or forget. A second incident like this and we will all but back on their radar. The girls a threat to us all"

That was Jasper. Trust Rosalie's adoptive brother who saw things in terms of black and white at best to see the threat. Rosalie scowled.

"Her name is Lena" she said quietly. "And she's fifteen Jasper. She's a child. With proper care she could become controllable. I mean she already has some control over her gift. She's managed to get control of it and she's clearly not using it with human's otherwise the school would be in uproar"

"Don't remind me" Edward groaned massaging his temples. "She was like a hammer in my head. She's good, she knows what she's doing. But Jaspers right, she's a threat. She's a massive threat unless were prepared to do something about it"

"We could take her in" Esme said turning to her husband and therefore missing the look that Jasper and Edward shared that told Rosalie that neither one of her brothers had been thinking of that option. They wanted the threat neutralised. Once, a long time ago she had thought the same thing about Bella. Edward overheard that thought and glared at her. Rosalie glared back and resisted the urge to throw him across the room. Esme had worked really hard on this house for them to destroy it in the first week.

"We can certainly sit down and talk about her options, we can try and teach her not to be afraid of what she is. We can teach her about the rules of this world." Carlisle decided. "But this girl…Lena…is in the human foster system and therefore there is very little we can do unless her foster parents mysteriously die. And no…" he said as Rosalie opened her mouth. "They cannot mysteriously die Rosalie"

"I wasn't going to say that" Rosalie snapped. "I was going to say does that mean were staying or not?"

Carlisle dithered for exactly a tenth of a second. "Yes" he said finally. "But I think we should have a place ready just in case. We still have the house in Forks and we still have Denali. Hopefully Lena can adopt to her new life with ease but we would be remiss not to expect some challenges."

Rosalie nodded privately not letting on how relived she was that the girl…that Lena, the little blonde girl who had looked at her with such fear, would be alright. They could look after her, Rosalie already had a bond with her, she could feel that fierce protectiveness build again around her and she wanted nothing more to do than to make sure that Lena grew up to be happy and healthy in this new immortal life. And anyway eventually she would ease out of the system. And then she could come and live with them if she wanted.

"Rosalie you are seriously making my headache worse" Edward groaned. "You got what you wanted now shut up"

Rosalie flipped him the finger. Edward flipped her back.

"Children" Esme said warningly.

"We should grab her after school" Jasper said finally "Bring her back here. You should speak to her Carlisle"

"Yeah cause kidnapping the teenager is always a good plan." Emmett said rolling his eyes. "I mean that's not gonna panic her"

"I gave her my number" Rosalie said. Everyone turned to stare at her.

"You kept that quiet" Bella said finally. Rosalie shrugged. In truth she had not thought much of it until now.

"And we know she can communicate with us" she said sweetly ignoring Edward's groan. "I say we let her approach us. The shock will wear off eventually"

"Yeah Rose, unless you've been missing the point of this conversation, that is exactly what we are afraid of" Jasper pointed out. Alice elbowed him. Rosalie was about to say something unkind but Emmett laced their fingers together and she settled for sitting down on the arm of the chair he was in. She supposed she had gotten what she wanted. Lena was safe for the minute.

The feelings that she felt for this girl was something that surprised her but there had been something about the fear in Lena's eyes, the desperation as she had been cornered and the way she had ran away that reminded Rosalie of a time that she wanted to forget and yet couldn't. She knew it wasn't the same but she knew what it was like to think one thing of the world and then have it ripped out from under you.

* * *

That night they went about their separate ways, Jasper and Alice went to hunt, Edward and Bella went back to their house. Jacob went…well Rosalie didn't really care where Jacob went to so long as if was far away from wherever she was. She had too nicer carpets for the smell to get to ingrained in them. Emmett was in the shower and she had changed into a loose black leggings and a green blouse.

That was when the phone buzzed on the couch that made up most of their room.

She reached for it and paused as she took in the number. Anyone in her family generally either ran to tell her news or used Edward or Alice as a form of communication. Jacob certainly didn't bother with the niceties and she didn't know many other people. As a rule the Cullen's kept to themselves. Of course there was only one person who also had her number, who she had told to call anytime…so…she reached for the phone flipping the lock screen across and putting the phone to her ear. For another tenth of a second there was nothing and then Rosalie spoke hoping that her voice sounded soothing and not as concerned and worried as she felt. If she had stayed with Lena…gone after her perhaps then maybe…

"Hello?"

"Rosalie"

"Yes?"

"This is Lena…the…Half-Vampire—" the rest of the sentence trailed off as if Lena couldn't speak anymore. The pit of dread in Rosalie's stomach increased pooling in her like venom behind her teeth. She forced herself to stay perfectly still. She wasn't even sure in that nano-second that she was breathing. Something had happened…she could tell by Lena's voice, something had happened.

"I err…I really need your help. I…I need to…err…I think I did something really fucking bad"

Rosalie breathed again.

"Where are you" she said aware that Emmett was now standing behind her. "Lena where are you"

"My house" Lena said finally. She rattled off the address and then Rosalie heard her swallow over the phone. "I did something bad Rosalie, I did something really bad and if you don't get here I'm not going to stop"

Rosalie nodded. "Ok. Listen to me I'm going to hang up now. I'll be there in two minutes. Don't do anything, don't move, just breathe ok"

There was a whimper and then the phone disconnected.

"Fuck" she said into the silence.

"What did she do?" Emmett said his voice uncharacteristically serious.

"I don't know. Well I do, I've got a horrible feeling that I do know. Shit Emmett, I should have never have left her alone, throw me my boots. No the brown ones there old I can replace them"

Emmett shot her an incredulous look but threw her knee high brown boots at her. Rosalie slipped them on and then went to open the window.

"Hang on a sec" Emmett said sticking his own jeans on, "We need Carlisle. If she's killed someone he'll know what to do"

"Get him" Rosalie said tying her hair back. "I'll meet you in a second"

And the she threw herself out the window.

By the time she had landed Emmett was there with Carlisle who was pulling on his jacket.

"Where?" Carlisle asked. Rosalie rattled off the address and then they were running through the trees and over the river like silent blurs through back streets and side streets until…

"Holy fuck" Emmett said stopping and leaving skid marks on the pavement. Rosalie turned to ask him just what the fuck he thought he was doing but her husband was standing there staring at the house number his eyes wide and blow. Rosalie turned took a breath and then…

Oh shit.

Blood.

Human blood.

And judging by the potency of it the whole house much be drenched in it.

Carlisle stopped next to them and turned around. When he turned around there was a concern on his face that Rosalie had not seen for a long time.

"I can go and do this myself if the two of you would prefer to stay here"

Rosalie wanted to say no, she wanted to stand there with her struggling husband and leave Carlisle to walk into the house strong with the smell of human blood but she couldn't. Lena had rang her. Lena had asked for her. Lena trusted her. She couldn't let her down now.

There was a pause where she stood there and then she pushed past Carlisle and moved into the house. If the smell of blood had been bad outside then it was worse inside. It was strongest in the hallway which was coated in blood. Rosalie could see two bodies and a smashed TV in the darkness. Carlisle gave a long sigh.

"I was afraid of this" he said sadly as he took in the bodies.

There was a whimper from the back of the hall where it turned into the kitchen. Rosalie fumbled until she found the light switch.

Lena was curled up in a ball on the floor her arms around her knees. Her blonde hair was matted with blood, her face, her clothes. She looked up as Rosalie bent down next to her and her eyes registered her arrival even if she said nothing but gave out that little whimper.

It was almost like she was a baby. Rosalie picked her up so that her head was resting against her shoulder like Nessie sometimes did. Like Henry had done when he had been a baby and Vera had been making tea.

Lena gave another little whimper and her arms wrapped their way around Rosalie's stone waist.

"It's ok" Rosalie said into the blonde hair that stank of blood and was now stained a grubby kind of pink. "I'm here, I promise you It's going to be ok. We can fix this."

Lena didn't say anything but Rosalie thought she felt the shoulders relax a fraction. Carlisle was checking over the bodies leaving the two of them together. Emmett was still outside, it was Rosalie who was the first to comfort the girl and the truly selfish thought (even for her) was this was just like it was when Renesmee had been born but better, because there was no mother to hand this girl who clung to her like she was dependant on her back to.

* * *

**And there you are, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I will endeavour to update sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-The Cullen's attempt to fix Lena's mistake. Rosalie helps Lena adjust while Emmett wonders why his wife is spending so much time with a teenaged half-vampire. **


	4. Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been

**Hi, so here is another chapter. I apologise for the lateness of this chapter but I hope you enjoy it anyway. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just the chapter published and the character of Lena. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 4-Are We Now Or Have You Ever Been

The Cullen's attempt to fix Lena's mistake. Rosalie helps Lena adjust, while Emmett wonders why his wife is spending so much time with a teenaged half-vampire.

* * *

Emmett was outside the house for exactly two thousand and eighteen seconds and with every breath he found that the stench of human blood was licking away at his self control. He had not moved so much as an inch of muscle since he had gotten there and he was well aware that he must look a sight. He knew enough to know that his eyes were blown right open and that he was staring at that house his chest heaving heavily. He closed his eyes trying to block out what he knew was outside and then as if the control that he had clung to was slipping away from him he took his foot off the pavement and he moved as if walking through quicksand towards the smell of the one thing he wanted more than anything else in the world.

Well except one thing. There was one thing that he was going towards and he had to say to himself over and over again as he went towards that damned house.

He was doing this for Rosalie.

Rosalie.

Rosalie.

_Rosalie. _

And the self control or the lack off would just have to pale into insignificance compared to that. Whatever had happened in that house was setting his skin alight with desire for blood but his wife, his mate, _his life _was in there too alongside a man who Emmett regarded as a father.

Emmett seriously wouldn't have gone in otherwise.

The sight that met him made his stomach twist and venom run down his throat, coating the inside of his teeth and his mouth, forcing the snarl deep down to rise through his throat so that the growl was right there, he almost shifted into a crouch desperate to strike, to take down the next threat which would have been the entire street. Actually he supposed if this was the first taste of any kind of blood that this girl had gotten her whole life then he supposed that he should be grateful she'd not gone out and massacred the whole street.

There were two bodies in the messed up room that had once been a lounge. The hall was cracked and coated with blood. Emmett watched as he took in Carlisle's expression and then he heard it.

It was a soft whimper at first and he noticed Rosalie on her knees her blonde hair a sheet of gold covering the side of her face as she knelt in a pool of blood seemingly unaffected by the stench of it. He moved a little closer to his wife and saw that she was holding the young girl in her arms and was rocking her back and forth in a way that reminded Emmett absurdly of a mother rocking a child back to sleep after a nightmare.

For a second that seemed to go on for longer than he imagined he stared at his wife. Her blonde hair was a silvery sheet over her shoulder hiding her face. In that moment Emmett saw the mother that Rosalie could have been. He had seen it when she was with Nessie, when she had been around whatever small town they had lived in at the time and she had flashed a baby or a small child one of her blinding smiles and softened when she saw the giggle or received a small wave in return. Once again he felt that small stab of inadequacy that he couldn't provide his wife with the one thing that she wanted.

Children had never really bothered him if he was being honest with himself. He had been eighteen when Rosalie had found him and while some of his friends were settled down and married with children he had never been one for them. They had been small and cute and all but he was always relieved when they had been given back to their parents. Even Nessie who he loved as if she was his own sometimes went to sleep in a different wing of the house and Emmett would turn back to whatever it was that he was doing. Edward and Bella hadn't been the only couple who had gone through hell for those months when they had thought the Volturi was coming to kill them all. He had rationalised that by thinking that if he was going to die then at least he was dying alongside Rose but fatherhood had never really appealed to him in the same way motherhood had appealed to her.

But there was a strange sense of tenderness in the way that Emmett looked at his wife with this blonde haired kid who was now sitting up and surveying the damage that one stupid little slip up had caused. She was wide-eyed and her hair which was only two shades darker than Rosalie's was matted with blood. Her whole body was still trembling with shock though her eyes were fixated on the door as if she was wondering if she could get more victims that way. Emmett stepped in front of her and from the quick pout that turned into a half snarl he knew that she had realised that she was not going to kill anyone else tonight, and that she was going to have to go a little bit longer without her drug of choice.

He felt Carlisle next to him. He was watching the kid who had ducked her head to her knees again with an expression that Emmett recognised only too well. Carlisle was a compassionate man—perhaps the most compassionate of their kind that roamed the earth and he had married and mated with a woman who was the embodiment of that love and respect and tolerance. Emmett remembered that girl in the clearing not so long ago and Jasper's frustration at their adopted father vouching for her and knew that this girl was going to come home with them.

That and he recognised that set of his wife's jaw only too well.

"Hello child" Carlisle said bending down and offering a hand out like one would comfort a wounded animal. Emmett watched as the girl's eyes went from his hand and then to Emmett's frozen expression.

And then just like that, he heard it, loud and clear like the tolling of a church bell.

_"__He does get I'm not a dog right?" _

Holy Shit.

No wonder Edward had fallen off his chair. That was loud. Rosalie's head snapped up as well and she shared a look with Emmett that was half shocked and half amused. Carlisle who had clearly not been in the conversation shot them a look.

"Did she just?"

"Yeah" the girl said pushing herself up and wrapping both her arms around her knees.

"And you can choose who you communicate with?" Rosalie asked. "You can just pop in and out of heads like that?"

"Not always. Didn't know how clear the channel was until you lot showed up. Either way I've always been able to do it"

"Remarkable" Carlisle said. "Eleazer is going to have a field day with this"

Emmett privately thought he was right. Eleazer was still recovering from the joy that came when he had seen Bella in action and that she had managed to repel Aro as an itty bitty human. He had been overwhelmed by the existence of Renesmee and her gift, if it was possible for vampires to keel over in shock Emmett was pretty sure something like this would fell their friend.

The girl looked at Rosalie who shushed her again. She folded one bloody lip into her mouth and bit down on it with teeth stained with blood. Emmett actually thought he could see flesh in her teeth. He thought that perhaps he needed to ring Edward and let him know not to let Bella outside. She was still a relatively young vampire and while she had the self control of Carlisle sometimes Emmett was pretty sure one whiff of the scent coming off this was enough to send her spiralling into the abyss of hunting humans. Even now Emmett was trying to take very, very shallow breaths, his fists clenched on the banister. Two people seemed unaffected by this however, Carlisle who was immune and Rosalie who despite having a cleanish record when it came to a kill count, had always struggled with the stench when it hit her head on, had her attention firmly fixed on the kid who was still in her arms and still desperate for the taste of the most powerful and addictive drug that she was ever going to get a hit off in her long immortal life.

"I'm a monster" she said finally her eyes dead a little as she looked at the bodies on the floor. "They didn't even do anything, I just killed them. I didn't even think, it was like once I knew it was just instinct calling out to me. And then…and then…" she closed her eyes her eyelashes fluttering against her cheekbones as if she could remember the very moment when she had finally gotten a taste of the one thing that she had never realised that she needed.

Emmett could remember the feeling only too well.

"You did nothing wrong" Rosalie said before Carlisle could get there. "You called me didn't you? And now we can help you. You can come back with us and be a part of our family now if you want. We can teach you how to control this inside of you and you can meet other people who are like you as well. But first we can get you a hot bath and a warm bed"

Emmett shot a look at Carlisle and he could see the surprise on the other man's face. The last member of their family who had been an outsider looking in was Bella and Rosalie had thrown a fit over her coming to the family. Emmett had, had to put up with the rows between her and Edward and his wife swearing from the top of her lungs that Bella Swan would never be a vampire and never be a Cullen. Even with Alice and Jasper, Rosalie had been the most cautious the longest. Never before had she been the one offering to take in the danger.

"Rosalie" Carlisle hissed under his breath but the girl's eyes were fixed on his wife and Emmett had the sense that there was something happening here that he couldn't understand. He had always prided himself on knowing his wife. He knew when she was upset, he knew when she was angry and when she was vicious and when she was desperate for his touch or just desperate to be alone. But there was something here that he didn't understand. Something about Rosalie's reaction here that he didn't know how to understand.

For the first time with his wife (even when they had been newly in love and the ghost of Royce King II had hung over them) Emmett was unsure how to proceed with his wife.

It was a startling thought, he and Rosalie might not have had gifts but he had always prided himself on knowing her, on the fact that he didn't need to mind read or miniplate emotions or see the future because as far as he was concerned there was only one future stretching ahead of him and that was the one with Rosalie.

Of course Carlisle recovered first. His father was never going to turn away anyone who wanted help and this girl clearly needed help. She had caused a right mess for them all he thought bitterly. She had nearly gotten them exposed with that little stunt in the cafeteria and now here she was going into some sort of shock as his wife wrapped her arms around her and laid their golden heads together.

_"__Sorry" _said the voice and Emmett sighed.

"Aint all your fault kid" he said out loud. Shit this was going to take some getting used too.

"Come on Lena" Rosalie said gently smoothing back the blonde hair. "Emmett can grab your stuff, I can take you back home if you want, get you something clean to wear."

"What…wha…" and Lena gestured with one hand to the two bodies and the blood in the dark kitchen.

"Oh we can handle that" Rosalie said dismissively. Emmett could practically hear Edward's eyebrow rising skywards and he wasn't even here. Jasper was also going to have a field day with this, learning his wife was top of the Volturi's Christmas list for gifted vampires had not done his brother much good when it came to his paranoia.

Lena looked around and Emmett was suddenly struck with how very young she was. He was not one to criticise Rosalie but he knew deep down that she shouldn't have told Lena what she was, she shouldn't have assumed that a fifteen year old would understand the world she had entered.

Lena stood on gangly thin legs like some little baby giraffe and Emmett watched as Rosalie let her out speaking to her softly all the way. Emmett had to look away least he acknowledge the pain he had trapped down deep inside him for so long. Rosalie would have made a wonderful mother, and he would never be able to give her a child.

Carlisle's hand when it came down on his shoulder was heavy. "Emmett son" he said finally. "Go upstairs and pack as much as she has into whatever you can find. Make sure you protect the memories. I'm going to find the gas. If we make this look like a terrible fire then perhaps we don't have to move again. We can say that Lena spent the night with us having a sleepover or something and that we would be more than happy to foster her. Nobody looking at Esme's perfect record could deny that she's a perfect foster mother"

Emmett nodded not commenting on the fact that Esme might have to fight Rosalie on who would be the figure in Lena's life that she would go to.

Instead he went upstairs trying very hard not to think about what had happened hear tonight or the fact that he knew that something had happened that would change the course of his comfortable immortal life forever.

* * *

**And there you go, please let me know what you think. **

**Next Chapter-Lena wakes up in the Cullen's house and meets everyone including her mirror self, the half vampire known as Nessie. **


	5. Who We Are

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I do apologise for the lateness of this chapter but I have recently accepted a new job and have been focused on that. The next chapter will have a bit more of Lena in it but I wanted to focus on Carlisle's perspective and his relationship with the one daughter he has that wanted nothing more to do than to die that night in Rochester. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine in this chapter just Lena. **

**Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.**

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 5-Who We Are.

Lena wakes up in the Cullen's house and meets everyone including her mirror self, the half vampire known as Nessie.

* * *

Lena didn't remember much after that. She did remember the man…Emmett coming down with bags of her stuff—she suspected most of it—but then she didn't remember Rosalie helping her to her feet or helping her into her coat. She did however remember Rosalie lifting her into his arms as if she didn't weigh anything and then she was running and Lena heard rather the explosion that came from the house that she had once co-inhabited with the two people who liked her but who had never given a shit about her all at the same time.

She remembered the running. Lena knew that it would be a long time before she forgot the running. She shut her eyes burrowing closer to Rosalie and finding that it was easier if she shut her eyes. She wanted nothing more to do but to scream into her hands, her brain felt on fire and she wanted more of that blood. To sink her teeth into some human flesh and drink until the crazed monster inside of her was appeased. She didn't know when that would be or how many corpses that would take but she did know that it wasn't over yet.

And she hated how that made her feel alive.

She closed her eyes.

After that she didn't remember them. Them being the people that were in the house. She remembered the warm bath and Rosalie soaping her hair and her body when Lena couldn't do anything but shudder and shiver. She remembered the change of clothes and someone blow drying her hair until the platinum blonde shades were straight. She also remembered being put into a hastily made bed and given a hot water bottle that she clutched to her stomach as if she was having her first period cramps.

At some point she was pretty sure she fell asleep.

She was pretty sure that was a miracle. She was also pretty sure that as she fell asleep her stomach was still rumbling and her throat was still on fire.

At the very least she had no idea of what was going on behind the closed doors of downstairs.

* * *

What was going on down the closed doors of downstairs was that the Cullen's were in full debate.

"Why in the name of all that is good and holy Rose did you promise her safety?" Jasper said pacing up and down the hallway. Rosalie who was sat on the same chair she had been sat on three hours previously where she had fought for the small little girl who was sleeping upstairs didn't acknowledge him. She had her hands in her lap and Carlisle who had been watching saw the woman who had screamed at him that he had ruined her life look at him like he had looked at her. Like there was something that was worth saving.

Unbidden the thoughts came to him.

_"__You owe me Carlisle. You destroyed my life. You owe me this. You owe me a shot at happiness! Save him! Save him please!" _

He shook his head trying to shake loose those thoughts and the image of his afternoon being disturbed by Rosalie covered in blood her expression broken and torn looking crazed as she had begged him to save Emmett. With each new addition to their family there came the added risk. Bella had been risk enough when Edward had gone to Italy. Renesmee had brought the full fury of the Volturi down on his family. As much as Carlisle sympathised with Lena (and he did, he really did) and her situation he wasn't sure if he had it in him to go through that again.

He turned to gaze at his wife's expression. He had a feeling that she would already be on Lena's side. She had never fully expressed her opinion on the whole Renesmee situation only other than to tell Carlisle that it was Bella's body and Bella's choice. What she had thought during that entire nightmare pregnancy was something that even now Carlisle didn't know. But he did remember Bree, he remembered when Bella was first introduced to them, the wolves that had protected them and the great care Esme had taken into feeding and clothing them and knew that Lena was probably going to stay.

It didn't mean that the rest of his family agreed with this decision.

"Maybe because I don't believe in killing a teenager because she made a mistake. God knows if we had to do that everytime you screwed up you'd have never made it Forks" Rosalie said silkily.

"That's not fair" Esme ever the peacemaker interrupted as Alice showed every sign of defending her husband. "Jasper has made some mistakes as has Lena. What happens now is what we do. The child has clearly not been taught the rules, up until today she had no idea what she was or what she could do. I think the decision should be up to her. We can offer her a place to stay. She doesn't have to take it."

"She's fifteen" Emmett pointed out from where he had been watching the night sky. He alone had his back to the group and Carlisle could see his face in the clean panes of glass. There was an expression on his face that made Carlisle pause. He thought that perhaps out of all of his sons Emmett had been the one who was the most open and honest to read. He had never had to turn his face away before. The last time that he had looked like that it had been when Bella had been in Rosalie's arms and Edward had wanted nothing more to do than to abort the baby growing inside of her. Emmett had said very little then, his own personal feelings warring with his love for his wife. Carlisle had known the feeling.

"She made a mistake Jasper" Emmett said finally his voice heavy with something that made Esme look at him with concern. Carlisle followed her gaze. "And very few people in this room can truly claim they have never fallen off the wagon"

There was a very pregnant pause.

"Alright" Carlisle said rubbing his temples. He had a feeling that had he been a human man right about now he would be on the end of a massive migraine.

"Lena needs to understand that there is a world out there that she is a part of. The decision to stay with us should be her decision, I do not personally feel the situation is as dire as that we have to move but we should ensure that the girl doesn't bring down the wrath of the Volturi"

"Especially not as they would find another way to blame us" Jasper muttered under his breath. Carlisle pretended for the sake of what was left of his sanity, not to hear it even if he did privately wonder if that would be the case. He was not one to turn any vampire away from his door but he had just come through a massive internal and external threat to his family.

He wasn't sure if could do it again.

But then again, it was Rosalie.

Rosalie had been the first daughter that he had had. She had been the girl that had saved from the pavement from the street of Rochester. She had been the daughter that deep down he had imagined that he and…(and it was Esme…god knows it was always Esme)…well she was his first daughter. He loved her and while he knew that Rosalie had been the most difficult of the children that he had changed he knew that the blonde haired woman loved him. She had lost the right to have children when Royce King II had violated her and Carlisle who had wanted nothing more to do than to break his eternal control and kill Royce King II, found that he couldn't completely pretend to disapprove what Rosalie had done when she had killed seven people. And he couldn't pretend that he didn't understand why she had hated him.

He could understand all too well.

There was a part of him that could see why she was taking this stance. There was a part of him that knew that there was a reason behind her connection to the half human upstairs. And that part terrified him because there was so many reasons why this could go wrong. There were so many reasons to put his foot down.

But the same could have and was said about Renesmee, about Bella. About Alice and Jasper and Rosalie herself, the highly visible beautiful girl who had been the darling of the town of Rochester. Changing all of them had been a risk. Accepting them into his family had been a risk.

And yet he had done so.

Carlisle sighed feeling the memory of a migraine and knowing that if he was human he would have had to go and lie down in a quiet and darkened room.

There wasn't really a choice here. He knew it. Deep down he knew it.

"When Lena wakes up we will inform her of the rules of this world. We can tell her what she needs to know and if she would like to stay with us she can" Carlisle held up a hand then anticipating Jasper's expression of complete frustration (that reminded him of when he had tried to save Bree in the clearing). "She deserves that much. You all know how confusing this life is especially if you are unprepared. Tonight could just be a blip"

"Considering how Nessie is with blood and Bella's pregnancy, the fact that she has survived this long without it is a miracle in itself" Emmett said again still not facing any of them.

"And she can use her gift?" Bella asked finally. "I mean she knew that she had a gift but not about vampires? I mean…she could read minds, she could communicate through this channel and she didn't realise that she might be something else, that she had this instinct buried deep inside her?"

"She has complete control over the gif" Rosalie said into the silence

"She is completely aware of the gift. She knows how to use it like a muscle. I don't know what her headspace is like but you all know her reaction. I don't think she could have known. Her father….well I gather he wasn't the best. He probably didn't want to stick to long in one place. It probably didn't even occur to him to check on the human woman that he was sleeping with. I mean before Renesmee we never thought anything like this was possible."

Again there was Rosalie speaking with that passionate tone when she defended the child who had just turned over under the covers still fast asleep, her mind attempting to heal itself from the onslaught of emotion and knowledge that had hit her today.

"Either way, we can do nothing until we present Lena the facts, she is entitled to her own choice in this. She may want to go her own way" he warned more to Rosalie that to any other member of the family.

"But if she doesn't" Rosalie said interrupting him. "Can she stay?"

Carlisle sighed. Trust Rosalie to ask a yes or no question to a complicated situation.

"It's Lena's choice" he said finally. "Hers and hers alone Rose. I wont force her to stay here if she doesn't want to."

He shot Jasper a sharp look and the words that his youngest son were about to say died abruptly.

Carlisle didn't need to hear that it was safer for them if Lena went her own way into the darkness and was never heard from again.

He already knew that.

* * *

Renesmee was curious. Curiosity killed the werewolf as Aunt Rosalie would say whenever Jacob was around and then another barbed comment about how she hoped killing said werewolf would hurt. Jacob had always laughed and flashed her a show of teeth. Renesmee had accepted the comments between her favourite Aunt and her favourite person as a day to day thing.

This was something she was curious about however.

Another half-vampire.

She had not had much to do with the other one who had come last month when she had still been so scared that her family were going to die. She had been too relieved to do much than process all of those emotions at once. Now she could study this girl in detail seeing the same paleness and the slight shimmer on the skin coming in from the open window. The thin cheekbones and dark circles under her eyes that came from a deep thirst. Renesmee had heard that this girl…Lena had not had human blood or animal blood in about eight standard years and she shuddered thinking of the intense hunger that would have gripped her.

As if she was reading her thoughts the girl…no Lena's eyes flickered open. Two blue eyes boarded into Renesmee's brown ones for a second and then before Renesmee could open her mouth Lena had in one fluid motion bolted off the bed and into the bathroom. Renesmee heard the sound of vomit.

"Nessie…what the hell…how did you end up here?"

Deciding it was more prudent to keep her mouth shut Renesmee pretended that she didn't hear Uncle Emmett's question. Lena came back out the bathroom.

"She" she said pointing at Renesmee her eyes wild. "I can hear better than I can hear you. She's on a different frequency to everyone but she's clear. I don't…and why is she thinking about werewolves?"

The last part came out as a shriek.

Uncle Emmett stared between the two of them for a fifteenth of a second. Renesmee counted, could see the wheels turning behind his eyes and the realisation come down on him.

"Oh shit" was all he said.

Renesmee usually a lot more fluent in her vocabulary couldn't help in this moment but think that that was a nice way of putting it.

* * *

**And there you are, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. **

**Next Chapter-Lena learns about who she is, this new world, the people that inhabit it and the choices that she has. She also receives one that she knows will change her life forever. **


	6. Yesterday's Heroes

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I do apologise for the lateness but I will get another chapter in after this one and then hopefully one in the New Year. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter and the character of Lena **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 6-Yesterday's Heroes

Lena learns for the first time just who and what she is, the new world she has entered, the people that inhabit it and it's laws as well as the choices that she has. She also receives one that she knows will change her life forever.

* * *

"Carlisle she's been out for ten minutes, even you have to admit that this is not healthy"

That was the voice that pulled Lena back to consciousness. She knew that voice.

That was the voice of Rosalie. The strange woman… no the vampire.

Oh shit. Her head was throbbing like she had done a night out on the town and drunk her own weight in vodka. Which was not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Fuck.

She heard a low chuckle.

"What?" snapped Rosalie.

"She's coming round" was all the voice said. Lena recognised that voice. That was Edward's voice. She had been in his head after all.

She forced herself to open her eyes though they felt like glue was sticking to her eyelashes.

Which (a random thought came into her mind) was strange because she had never worn eyelash glue before never needing false eyelashes.

The chuckle came again and Lena wished she had the strength to hit him.

_Dickhead, _she said using the channel between their two minds to communicate between them.

There was another chuckle.

Lena forced her eyes open.

She was hyper aware they were all looking at her.

Rosalie was nearest to her, the big one…Emmett was just at her shoulder and he flashed her a grin that didn't totally eradicate the concern in his eyes. Rosalie was holding her hand in her own, the sensation of it felt nice, it felt safe. She was unused to feeling like this from anyone.

There were others scattered around the room. She saw the other…vampires that had been with their siblings at the school. There were two others whose names she did not know and whose faces were unfamiliar. And then there was that other person. Renesmee…and some man standing with her, tanned and muscular and…oh holy shit there was some smell around him that she really did not like. Ugh.

She sat up but her head throbbed so much she had to lie back down again. Rosalie touched her on her arm and Lena followed her eyesight so that she could see the woman looking down at her concern etched onto every inch of her face. For a second all Lena could see was the concern in a face that looked much older than the person inhabiting it. She wouldn't have put Rosalie past the point of eighteen and yet there was something in her butterscotch coloured eyes that made Lena think she was much, much older than eighteen.

She wondered how long Rosalie had been eighteen.

The girl in the corner…Renesmee…the one who had been in the room when she had woken up and who had chatted so happily in her mind about werewolves and shit that Lena didn't even want to begin to understand smiled at her. She had a perfect set of white teeth and dimples. She looked like a child but her mind was full functional of that Lena was sure.

Suddenly something else gripped her. Something that tore through her throat as if it was burning. Without thinking, without the conscious thought that came with the action, she had sat up and her hands had curled around her throat, a childish action she knew and a pointless one to boot.

"Here Lena"

Rosalie passed her a white cup, the kind you got milkshakes in with a straw. Lena took it and without thinking greedily took a sip. It was blood, she knew because of the tang behind it but it was not nearly as good as the kind she had tasted when she had sunk her teeth into the warmth of her foster parents throats. Actually come to think of it while it tasted good it also tasted bad, like it had gone off.

Could blood go off?

The mind-reader, Edward, chuckled again. Everyone turned to stare at him.

"No" he said to Lena's thoughts, "No it's not gone off don't worry, what you've got there is pure elk blood. It will control the cravings don't you worry but it's not the same. Believe me"

Lena finished the milkshake cup trying not to think. The burn was easing off a little, at least so she could speak in complete sentences.

"Can I not have the real stuff?"

The second the question came out of her mouth she felt ashamed. More than that she felt disgusted. The 'Real Stuff' had resulted in the deaths of two innocent people who she had not actually hated. Even she knew the real stuff had it's consequences.

But yet…she wanted…no she craved it.

"No" Rosalie said finally. "It's…Lena I…" and then she trailed off as if she was completely and utterly lost for words. Lena watched her unsure of what was happening here but aware enough to know that there was a significant shift in power.

The man, the blonde one who looked like he could have been carved from some kind of marble stepped forwards and smiled at her his whole being gentle. Lena found that she was relaxing in his presence on instinct there was just something about him.

"Hello Lena, my name is Carlisle Cullen. This is my wife Esme…" he indicated the woman who had been stood next to him with the soft billows of caramel coloured hair that reminded Lena of the 1950s movie stars that she would sometimes see on social media so that they didn't die out with their generation. The woman looked impossibly gentle and soft and yet Lena was sure, much like Rosalie, her skin would be as cold as ice and just as hard, perhaps even more so.

"These are my sons, Emmett, Edward and Jasper, and my daughters, Alice, Bella and of course Rosalie. And you have already met my granddaughter Renesmee. Next to her is a dear family friend Jacob"

The…well…whatever he was, Jacob anyway gave her a short hard stare and shifted closer to Renesmee in a way that told Lena that as far as he was concerned regardless of what Renesmee or Rosalie thought, he at the very least, considered her a threat.

"Hi" Lena said lamely.

"As you have been told we are all vampires, apart from Renesmee who is a half vampire like yourself and Jacob who is as you have discovered a werewolf"

Lena felt her head bob up and down.

"I must ask you Lena, did you know what you were before Rosalie told you?"

Lena shook her head.

"May I ask how you dealt with your hunger?"

Lena thought about it.

"I…I don't know" she said slowly as she thought over it. "I know that I was always hungry, so hungry and I never knew why or what it was I was craving. But I did know that I was constantly needing something, it made me feel…raw…split open so to speak. But…but I never thought it was something like this"

"Why would you" Rosalie said rubbing her cold hand up and down Lena's arm. "I should have known better than to spring that upon you. I should have known but…you seemed so in control of what you could do. And even in the cafeteria you didn't even hesitate even though the thirst must have been strong."

"I didn't know" Lena said helplessly. "I really didn't. And as for what I could do. Well. I've always been able to do that. It's just something I've grown up with. It's natural like an instinct but when I heard you it was like being charged up for the first time and I could hear everything, and then with her…" she pointed at Renesmee who shrunk back into the werewolf's leg a little bit more. "With her I could hear everything even more clearly. Like I had gone from a bad connection, to a good connection to HD"

"So you never felt any thirst? Never felt the urge to attack someone? Even when they bleed in front of you?"

That came from the honey blonde one, Jasper who leaned forwards with a look of intense concentration on his face. Lena took in the bite marks and thought that either he had been through hell and back or vampires were into incredibly kinky sex.

"I don't think anyone did cut themselves in front of me" she said simply. "And the only time I felt the urge to attack was yesterday. But that was because I knew…I…it wasn't something I ever thought was real…what…what am I anyway. Half Vampire. What does that even mean?"

Carlisle opened his mouth again but before he could Renesmee had stepped forwards and had crossed the room holding out her hand with another dimpled smile. She couldn't be much older than eight though Lena thought that perhaps, like everyone else in her strange family she was much older than she looked.

Lena compromised however, curiosity getting the better of her. She placed one forefinger on the girls palm.

It was like what she could do in reverse.

Because suddenly she could _see _everything.

When she came back to herself it was with a huge gasp of air. Renesmee slid back to the werewolf with an expression of supreme smugness.

"Oh"

Why was that all that Lena could say?

She leaned her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes for a second.

"Was my father a vampire then?"

"It would seem so. Your mother was human. I imagine the stress of carrying you to term and the fact that human bodies are not made to carry vampire offspring without help caused her death. If she did go to a hospital, I can assure you that the hospital didn't know what they were doing. Given the fact that you are fifteen I would say that we have six or seven months before your sixteenth birthday and then you will stop ageing"

That was Edwards voice.

"So I will never die?" Lena asked wishing that she didn't hear the tremor to her voice. Dying was a part of life. Even ageing was something so mundane she had counted on it without even really recognising it for what it was. Time, the passage of something normal and human.

But she was not human.

"No" Rosalie said softly.

Lena nodded not really hearing the words, she could not…no she would not start to process the fact that she was responsible for the death of her mother and that her father was a vampire and for all she knew still out there somewhere and had never bothered to find either her or the woman he had so carelessly used for his own advantage.

The thought made her feel slightly sick.

Instead she decided to focus on something slightly less dangerous.

"Do you all have…gifts?"

"Not all of us no." Carlisle said finally into the silence. "I do not, nor do Esme, Emmett or Rosalie. Edwards as you know can read minds, you have already experienced Renesmee's gift, Jasper can…control the emotions of others which in this house can be both a help and a hindrance I suppose. Bella is a shield of sorts, she can block any mental attack coming her way and Alice…Alice can see the future"

Lena let out a noise that was somewhere between a sob and a scream.

Eventually once she thought that she had herself under control her teeth de-clenched. After another long pause where she tried to work something back into her throat that would help her regain the power of normal speech she spoke.

"Who are the Volturi?" she asked choosing another part of Renesmee's vision to focus on.

There was another delicate pause and then Carlisle spoke again telling her about the rules of this brave new world she had stepped into, the regulations that came with them and the consequences. He chose that moment to tell her what the difference between golden and red eyes were and then finished the moment by telling her that since she had murdered her foster parents the Cullen's had applied, at least until Lena left High School to be her foster parents and that it would probably take that long for her to learn how to control her thirst.

Lena took that to be an open invitation and she nodded when Carlisle asked her if she wanted to stay with them.

_"__Wonderful" _said a voice inside her head. She turned to see Rosalie, her hair a sheet of pure gold over her shoulders and her pretty face hidden from sight. Lena could feel the smugness radiating off her and more to the point she could hear it. But there was something else in the tone that she could hear in the golden windchimes. Something that felt like hope, that felt like love…

Lena shook her head feeling her own blonde hair shake in time with her hand.

_"__She looks so hopeful" _that voice was Emmett's. His eyes were fixated on Rosalie and he must have been seeing something that she wasn't because his expression was even more harder to read than Rosalie's and that was saying something.

_"__Oh I do hope this isn't going to end badly. I don't think Rose could stand it. And the thought of her being hurt…" _

Lena pulled out of his mind suddenly as the depth of the emotion hit her head on and she had to swallow ducking her head and feeling something catch in her eyes.

"Lena…" that was Esme and Lena looked up her head titling to the side and hoping against hope that her expression did not betray her feelings.

"Yes?" she asked trying to be polite.

"Would you like some human food? We can get you some more blood to go with it if you wish? You don't have to learn how to…well…you don't have to do anything just yet"

"Yes" Lena said grasping on the part that said food. She was always hungry and that had not changed.

"Whatever you have please?"

Esme nodded with a soft smile.

_"__Oh I hope this ends well" _Emmett thought again his eyes on Lena's as if he wanted her to hear what he was thinking—which he probably was.

_"__Yeah" _Lena thought though her tone was riddled with self-doubt. She kinda hoped it did too.

* * *

**Next Chapter-Lena gets her own bedroom in the Cullen house. Nessie wants to spend time with Lena as does Rosalie. Mostly Rosalie and Lena interaction with some interaction from the incomparable Jacob Black and his love of meat covered, stuff crust pizza.  **

**Enjoy. **


	7. The Stormy Present

**Hi, so here is another chapter and the last before Christmas. I hope to get another chapter published before New Years but if I don't I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a very safe 2020. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just the character of Lena. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**Also I had so much fun creating Lena's room so I hope you could all imagine it. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 7-The Stormy Present

Lena gets her own bedroom in the Cullen house. Nessie wants to spend time with Lena as does Rosalie. Mostly Rosalie and Lena interaction with some interaction from the ever incomparable Jacob Black and his love of meat covered, stuff crust pizza.

* * *

There was a week that went by before Lena got her bedroom. She had been spending time sleeping on the couch drinking that yucky blood that made her want to snarl. It wasn't what she wanted and yet it was all that she had. Still she couldn't comprehend the events that had taken place. Lena leaned against the couch cushions and sat with the damn milkshake cup and sucked at the blood and tried not to think too hard about what she was doing.

She had been transferred into the Cullen's care following the death of her foster family in that freak gas explosion which had destroyed everything including the evidence of her super strong teeth sinking into their throats and drinking them dry. Also she had miraculously survived due to her pre-planned sleepover with Rosalie which had of course taken place the night the house had gone up in smoke and with complete supervision of Rosalie's parents who were of course foster parents themselves with an impeccable reputation. Of course Lena would be more than welcome at the house and of course Child Protective Services were so charmed by Esme and Carlisle that they fast-tracked everything.

Esme had begun working on a room. She was apparently only the second Cullen in the history of the family (whatever that family history was—she had yet to figure that out) who needed a bedroom, and a bathroom. That was Lena's only stipulation when she was asked what she wanted. A private bathroom and a double bed. As far as she was concerned the rest of it didn't matter. She had lived in foster homes where she'd had to share the bathroom and she remembered what it was like to have no privacy. She wanted that here. Living with a group of vampires one who could read minds and one who could see the future killed off most usual methods of privacy. She was going to take what she could get.

At that thought she sucked another mouthful of blood. Carlisle had decided to keep her on the blood in a cup rather than take her out hunting which was good because if she had been told she had to stalk down a mountain lion and kill him then she would have really gone of the cliff's edge in her brain. Right now it was all she could do to keep herself drinking the blood.

It was better with every mouthful she supposed. At least the gnawing hunger was abating. She was sat watching TV and sipping at it. She hoped that Jacob (who might not trust her but who did understand the desire to stuff your face with human food) might bring back some kind of bad food that she could gorge on. Right now Salt and Pepper Chicken with garlic bread would make her feel a lot better.

She cast an eye to her cup—maybe the blood was screwing up with her appetite.

"Hello" said a voice to her left and she turned to see Nessie as she wanted be known come in with Jacob. Lena smelt rather than saw the food. It wasn't what she wanted but it was two meat filled pizza that stunk of grease and cheese and pepperoni. Jacob passed one two her and she stuff one slice down her throat without tasting it, letting out some sort of groan that had she made in public would have sent several strange stares her way. Jacob tore a slice of his own pizza in half with his teeth. Nessie pulled out her English Lit book and looked revolted wrinkling her nose.

"Blood or pizza?" Jacob asked with a fond grin.

"Both" Nessie said in her high soprano voice. "I miss the days when I had donated blood"

"Me too" Lena said around the crust. Jacob, God Bless him had gotten the cheesy crust.

"Did Carlisle tell you to feed me?" she asked.

"Nah, Esme said you still liked your human food and that you weren't on the diet yet. Figured it would be nice for Ness to spend some time with you and I am always starving so…also…it's nice when your eating with me. Blondie doesn't moan at me as much, saves me a headache"

He winked and Lena took another mouthful of blood unsure weather or not to laugh. She chewed again another mouthful of crust as Nessie turned to Act 1 of King Lear with an animated expression.

"Ugh" said a windchime voice and she turned to see Rosalie come down the stairs. She was still impossibly perfect Lena noticed. Her blonde hair was held in a ponytail behind her head that had that look of impossibly held together and yet at the same time looked messy as if this casual Hollywood style of ponytail was something that could be done in ten minutes and not in ten hours.

She bit her bottom lip feeling another pang at the simple beauty Rosalie had that she never had herself. She seemed to move like she was water, fluid and with an easy that she imagined came when the venom coated your veins fully and not with the half shit that she had. There was another long pause where she sat there and then she forced herself to look away back to her pizza.

"What?" Jacob said in a tone that said that he was well aware that his very presence (and his smell) was annoying and that he wasn't going to do a damn thing to change it. Had he actually been a dog at this very minute then he would have been probably in the middle of scratching his balls or peeing on the carpet marking his turf.

She could tell that there was no love lost between the two of them and she had to look down to hide her smile.

"Grease, Dog" Rosalie hissed through gritted teeth. "Grease on my table. Fingerprints on the glass and the smell…ugh…"

Lena bit her lip to hide the laughter. Jacob winked stuffing a mouthful of pizza into his mouth and this time chewing with his mouth open. Even Renesmee looked rather ill at the sight of that.

"One day" Rosalie said leaning forwards and snarling, her perfect teeth on show. "One day there will come a time dog, and when that time comes I will crush you beneath my perfectly manicured nails and then…oh…then I will hear you scream"

Lena choked on her mouthful of blood and had to bit back a bubble of laughter at the look of complete and utter indignation at the look on Renesmee's face. Jacob winked at Rosalie whose eyes bugged out of her head for a second before she controlled herself. Instead she turned her back on the pair in one fluid motion and said with a glee that Lena didn't understand that much, "Your room is ready if you want to come and see it"

Lena stared for a second as if she was debating what she was doing before she nodded feeling suddenly shy and getting to her feat feeling rather wooden about it. She winced standing up and dropped her pizza on the table on a coaster seeing as Jacob had brought no napkins.

Somehow she didn't think Esme's generosity would last much longer if she dropped pepperoni on the carpet.

* * *

Rosalie led her up the staircase. Lena had only been here a weak but she got how the house worked. Vampires didn't sleep but they did have their own room. Rosalie's had been all golden and mirrors with an oak bookcase and a massive games system she assumed belonged to Emmett in the corner. The one time she had been to take a shower she had almost wept when she had seen the huge bathtub and the amount of different haircare and facial care products. And that was before she had peaked around the closet. Seriously these people must have had some serious cash to burn.

She had seen Alice's and Jasper's room only through the crack in the wall, but she had seen enough to know that it was a nice cream colour and had more wardrobes and chest of draws than Rosalie's and there was what also looked like a massive collection of props from the Civil War. Bella, Edward and Nessie lived alone in their own little cottage and Esme had built Jacob a little apartment/bungalow thing not too far because apparently, he needed to be around for some reason that Lena was not privy too. She had not seen Esme and Carlisle's room yet, but she also knew Carlisle had his own office that had a huge fucking cross hanging over the door and so far Lena had avoided it like the plague because she had heard about the rumours surrounding vampires and she wasn't in the mood to see if a steak through the heart would kill her.

Rosalie let up through another set of small stairs that led to an attic in the house that she was pretty sure a weak ago had not existed. She tried to deflect the questions in her mind. She was still not sure how or what she was feeling or even if she was beginning to process the information that had been dumped on her but she didn't want anyone asking questions or poking her in her mind. It was far too much right now.

Problem was once you opened the channel then you couldn't close it very well. Actually, it was little more than a nightmare to get the channel closed.

There was a landing of smoother oak and their were dust motes still floating around it. But the carpet was a soft dark grey.

"Esme and I just finished it" Rosalie said her voice brimming with excitement. "As you know Alice has trouble seeing what you like but I thought you were not the girly girl so I thought that a nice even tone would be ok, and Alice did go a little overboard on clothes but that's just Alice. She wanted to get you some stuff and she thinks your closet is woeful, not Bella woeful—nobody is that bad but enough so she went and raided all the local designer stores. I thought you were more of a jeans and boots girl so I got you some stuff from there and I don't know how comfortable you were with underwear so I thought we could do that together…if you wanted…"

But Lena had already tuned her out as she stared at the room.

The carpet was the thick soft grey as outside and the bed was facing the window which took up nearly one side of the room. It was covered by heavy curtains in soft grey. The bed was king sized, and the sheets were grey covered in a dark blue duvet with gold embroidery, gold and royal blue pillowcases and a smooth gold blanket. There was a chest of draws at the foot of the bed in the same smooth oak that made up the slanted ceiling. The walls were a pale colour and by the window was a desk with several draws and a chair. Each side of the bed had a table each side and then across the room was another small table and a wardrobe. The bathroom was across the other side of the room and Lena could see it had a smooth marblelike floor of blue and purple mixed together, one of the heated towel racks filled with warm towels and a basket for dirty laundry. There was also a huge bath tub and a shower in white next to it.

The counter for her bathroom took up one side and was white as well with two sinks, two mirrors and draws down the side. Several plug sockets were scattered around the room for charging ports, hairdryers and other hair appliances. Across the room on a small stand was a television connected to a DVD player so big she couldn't help but blink when she saw it. The window gave her a breath taking view of the forest and the river, privacy as well. The door had a lock something she was most certainly not used too. Even the toilet taps were gleaming.

How they had pulled this together in a weak was beyond anything she could imagine. She turned opening the wardrobe and saw the labels of the clothes, the shoes stocked neatly, the books that were in the cabinet next to the DVDs, her Harry Potter collection, Star Wars, Jane Austen. There was a yoga mat propped up against the wall and the window could open she noticed. Almost like she could jump.

"I thought about adding a balcony but Esme thought you'd just appreciate the view" Rosalie said quickly when she caught Lena looking. "I can get Emmett and Jasper to do it, it should take only a few days at most. And…and if you want we can see about getting you a car when you get your licence. And…Lena is there anything you want me to change, anything that—oh—oh why are you crying?"

She moved closer and Lena wiped her eyes furiously annoyed in the extreme that she had caught her in a moment of weakness. She shook her head.

"There's nothing wrong with it" she said her voice trembling. She coughed a little and then tried and was relieved when she succeeded in getting her tone back on a level playing field.

She forced herself to speak again.

"It's perfect" she said finally. "It's…I didn't expect this. I…I didn't expect this. Rosalie…thanks"

She was almost shy at the end and then before her courage could stop her she crossed the room and hugged her. Rosalie's skin was icy to touch and brittle to the bone but after a second the arms came around her and the two of them were hugging. Lena closed her eyes and breathed in that jasmine and rose scent that was the closest thing that she had to someone who cared about her. And in her long life Lena had never known someone who had cared about her to this extent.

They stayed there for a very long time.

* * *

Lena, and neither Rosalie saw Emmett standing at the door behind them.

The expression on his face was unreadable.

For Jasper downstairs his feelings were also unreadable.

But neither of them saw him.

Just as well. Really.

* * *

**And there you are. I hope you all enjoy, see you soon. **

**Next Chapter-Emmett and Rosalie have a conversation about where Lena fits in, Rosalie and Lena spend some time together before Lena comes to a decision. **


	8. Puzzle With A Piece Missing

**Hi, so here is the update i promised for New Year and i am so glad i got it done, with this chapter i wish you all a very happy and safe 2020. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**And thank you all for your kind comments so far. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 8-Puzzle With A Piece Missing

Emmett and Rosalie have a conversation about where Lena fits in. Rosalie and Lena spend some time together before Lena comes to a decision.

* * *

Emmett was pacing around his room. It had been a tick that he had developed over time and something he knew he had gained from his father. His father had not been the kindest of men, his love for his family had been overtaken by his gruff nature but before his untimely death of the Spanish Influenza that always seemed to roam the United States even decades after it had taken Edward's family, he had installed in Emmett the basic principals of which he had built his immortal life upon.

His father had maintained that a man (if he was truly to call himself such) had to stand behind his family. His father had never stepped out on his mother (at least not that he had known about) and he had always enforced the view that a man came home to his wife at the end of the day and his family and the money he earnt went on them.

There was some truth in that matter when it came to how Emmett had spent his immortal life. He had never even felt an inkling to look away from Rosalie—there was no comparison—and he had been prepared to stand in front of the Volturi alone if it had meant protecting her from the lecherous gaze of Felix who had given all of the Cullen females a one over in that clearing (and Emmett didn't need to be a mind reader to know that). He had even once had a brief thought (as suicidal as it was to mention it out loud) that perhaps Rosalie might take Renesmee and run. Though he knew enough to know that she would have never done that. They had stood side by side facing certain decimation and when Emmett had picked Felix as the one he would go for (because he would have been damned if he would have been left out of the fight), Rosalie had stood by him and told him the group at large that she would take Renata or as she had called her—_that drip defending Aro whose face I want to smash beneath my Jimmy boots_—while Emmett was relieved they had survived a part of him had really wanted to see his wife do that.

But it had been enough that they were standing there together, standing there husband and wife ready to greet whatever it was that was standing between them and survival. And if the afterlife had called them then he would have followed Rosalie into it with a smile on his face.

For Emmett was rather like Carlisle and Esme in that respect. He might not vocalise it but he knew that there was something else out there for the good people. Maybe not for him, but how could there not be a heaven for one as perfect as Rosalie?

But there was now a spanner in the works.

Lena.

Emmett understood, really he did, he understood Rosalie and her desire to be a mother, nothing other than that and the deepest love that one could feel for another would have caused him to stand beside his wife as she had helped Bella on her crusade to give birth to Nessie. He had watched with an indulgent smile as Rosalie had rocked the baby that Nessie had been, as she had fought Jacob to hold her. For her it had been her baby as much as Bella's. And while he knew that deep down Rosalie had not wanted Bella to die he had also known (though he had never been stupid enough to think it) that if Bella and then inevitably Edward had died then his wife would have stepped in as mother without so much of a second thought.

And he had understood that, he had really. He had been prepared to stand by her regardless. He had faced the anger of his brother over that. Because he knew that the one thing that Rosalie had wanted had been snatched away from her.

Even now the thought of Royce King II made his mouth pool with venom and his lips pull back in a snarl.

And a part of him could understand that with Lena. Rosalie had rocked her like a baby, had spent hours with Esme picking out carpets and clothes and was promising shopping trips and even reading human cookbooks. She was acting like she was a mother. And while with Nessie it had been a case of living vicariously (because deep down Emmett had really thought that Bella would survive) with Lena it was not the same scenario. There was nobody else for Lena. There was no other parent out there, no father on the picture. How could there be?

And so his wife stepped in.

The problem was Emmett didn't know how this was going to end. He had no idea how this ended for the woman who had held his heart (while still beating and long after it had stopped). He didn't want her to get hurt. And if Lena decided she wanted to leave…well she wouldn't be the first would she? Edward had left, Alice and Jasper had both left, they had all left Bella, Bella and Edward had been prepared to leave Nessie had they not? Despite what they all thought none of them were infallible. He had seen the heartbreak that Esme had tried so hard to hide when Jasper and Alice had gone missing, could only imagine what it was like when Edward the only child she had, had in this world had gone missing. He had no idea how Carlisle had pulled the two of them together for half a century.

And what if Lena did the same? Already her presence was in this house. Jacob was glad of the company when it came to human food, Nessie was a fan of having someone who ran as hot as her, as wild as her, who understood her, Edward was in fascination of the gift that she possessed, Rosalie…well…he knew what Rosalie wanted.

And he wanted to give it to his wife, by God he wanted nothing more than to give the greatest gift he could to his wife. He wanted to grant her the child that she had craved for.

How he was going to do that without hurting her he didn't know.

And then there was his own feelings.

Emmett had never thought he was going to be a father, even during his day when he had womanized his way throughout Tennessee, he had never thought of himself with a baby, or a child, or a teenager. And yet here he was. With a teenager.

And so began his pacing all over again.

* * *

Rosalie entered the room a little after one.

Lena had been watching the Harry Potter movies on her laptop and Rosalie had given herself a moment to indulge the childishness of the relationship even if she had wanted nothing more to do than to curl under the covers with the girl herself.

Rosalie who remembered actors who had been around before the actors that had come onto the eight films—well the five films—she had watched before had even been born had left Lena slumbering to the end credits of Order of the Phoenix and had gone in search of her husband feeling more than content as she had ever had before.

She had found however, her husband pacing the floor.

A very long tradition had told her what that meant.

She had understood it, the difficulties of what Emmett was going through. Emmett had never felt the division between human life and vampire life that she had felt, he had never felt the desire to be a parent that she had felt.

It had never diminished the love that she had felt for him, but she knew what she felt right now. How Emmett would feel about it was another story.

For Rosalie knew how she felt about the whole scenario.

She knew.

Emmett had his back to the room when she entered. Their bedroom (with no bed) had been their safe haven in the house and even now when Emmett turned she felt the urge to throw herself into his arms.

"So" her husband said finally.

"What does this mean Rose?"

"Nothing changes" she said truthfully. "Nothing, Emmett…she…she…I cannot help but what I feel for her…I love her Emmett, I won't apologise for that"

Emmett cut her off.

"I have never wanted you to apologise for that" he said finally.

"Rose, I have known you, I have loved you, I will continue to love you. But she could hurt you and that makes me feel a pain I have never felt before. I know you know that"

Rosalie nodded. She was not stupid after all. She knew that Lena could go at any minute. That the sleeping daughter upstairs could leave her. And she could not explain what she was feeling when she said that word even if it was in the back of her mind.

Daughter.

Daughter.

Daughter.

It was a word that she had never thought she would ever say.

Daughter.

It was never a word that she had ever though applied to her situation. Mother. She had lost that when she had lost her life, lost her virginity, lost her dignity on the cold pavement of Rochester New York.

"I know" she said softly. "But…but I think there is something there, and maybe I am overthinking it, maybe she will never come to see me as a mother, I get that, I respect that but Emmett…weather she loves me as a mother or as simply a big sister it doesn't matter, I've not felt this sure about anything since I first saw you in those woods. She belongs here with us, with me and you"

Emmett stared at her and Rosalie could see emotions whirling beneath those topaz eyes that had once been brown. She tried to keep his gaze, but she couldn't look at him anymore. She could explain this feeling that she had not even to herself, so therefore how could she explain this to Emmett? There were only two people she knew that understood this feeling—Esme her adopted mother who had taken in scared and broken children in a way and made them whole through a kind of kindness that seen and witnessed rarely even for an immortal and well…Bella…who'd had the chance to have the one thing that Rosalie had wanted and had despite everything done it. She'd had a child, she knew that it was right regardless of everyone around her thinking it was wrong.

She was beginning to understand a little how Bella must have felt, trying to explain a feeling that just would not go away. She could understand the desperation she must have felt trying to put into words what she was feeling towards something so terrifying.

Emmett nodded finally sitting on their couch and looking up at her. Rosalie came and sat next to her leaning her head on his arm. Emmett wrapped her securely in his bulk and she smiled. This had been something they had figured out early on in their relationship and had stuck to it even when Emmett had been a newborn and she had been full of pride and bravado and pretending that sex even with someone she loved who loved and respected her didn't terrify her.

She leaned back and tried not to think about the girl upstairs.

But she couldn't help the small smile that she knew was playing at her mouth whenever she thought of the word, daughter.

* * *

Lena had found the fridge in the house easily enough. Esme had been out shopping with Alice, Jasper and Emmett had gone hunting and everyone else in the house was out. She had found the fridge and made herself eggs and toast, she chewed it thoughtfully thinking hard and taking a sip of her blood that was neatly in the fridge stacked against the back with her name on the cup.

Last night she had slept without nightmares. She had no idea what was going to happen now she was becoming attached to this place. She had her own room for heavens sake!

She supposed she should think about going to school but the bed upstairs was so comfy and Lena thought that perhaps she could milk the whole 'traumatised orphan' thing well enough so that she could get another week of school. She felt bad about it, really she did but she was beyond exhausted when it came to analysing her emotions.

She heard a noise that her sitting upwards and she followed the clunk-clunking noise that was coming out of the garage.

Lena paused on the edge of the doorway feeling her mouth drop open. She didn't know much about cars but she could guess looking at the logos that there were at least three million worth spent on the cars at this point.

"Hey" said a voice and she turned to see Rosalie bending over the engine of what looked like a red convertible, there was streak of oil against her nose but that did nothing to detract her seriously immortal beauty away from her.

She grinned.

"Nice car" she said finally. "Very shiny and red"

Rosalie let out a laugh and turned back to the engine wiping her hands on a rag. "I suppose it is" she said though there was pride in her voice as she said it. Lena grinned at her took another gulp of blood.

"What's got you so smiley?"

Lena thought about it but didn't say it, that she didn't feel alone anymore, that she was coming to the conclusion that she might actually belong here. Safe, sound, happy even.

She shook her head feeling another gold tendril touch her shoulder.

"Nothing" she said.

She was still smiling.

* * *

**And there you are, i hope you enjoy. **

**Next Chapter-Lena goes back to school and enjoys a day shopping with Rosalie and Alice, Rosalie massively self indulges Lena and Esme and Rosalie have the first of many talks about motherhood. **


	9. People Like Me

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this is a short one but I hope you enjoy it anyway. With work back on track there might be a bit of a gap between chapters.**

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 9-People Like Me.

Lena goes back to school and then enjoys a day shopping with Rosalie and Alice, Rosalie massively indulges Lena and Esme and Rosalie have the first of many conversations about motherhood.

* * *

Going back to school was jarring not least because there were whispers. Clearly the school had been told not to talk about Lena's miraculous survival and then had naturally been discussing it in corners. She could tell when she entered a classroom and she got either utterly sympathetic looks or one more than one occasion gossip. She kept her head down, her teeth gritted and thought that it was perhaps a lot easier to deal with bitches when she had not fantasied about ripping their throats out with her teeth.

And it didn't help that school was utterly boring.

She was in her English class when they were assigned Romeo and Juliet.

_"__Oh for the love of"_

_"__Hey kid what's wrong" _

Oh shit that was Emmett.

_"__Sorry, they are making me study Romeo and Juliet." _

_"__Oh I get it kid, dreadful play, I like A Midsummer Night's Dream, much more enjoyable myself" _

_"__Emmett" _

And that was Edward.

Lena snorted and pulled out of their heads leaving them to bicker, being a year younger than most of the Cullen's (or at least some of them) she was not in the same classes and therefore she didn't have the company. Most of the work in English, History and other subjects she could enjoy were good enough to distract herself from the thirst that seemed to be growing but as she went to her locker she found that she was struggling a little with not killing everyone—including the bitch three doors down who was staring at her with something akin to complete and utter disgust as if she knew it had been Lena who had offed her family and had walked away unscathed. Lena felt her teeth gnash together, oh what she wouldn't give to get at that bitch's throat and end this once and for all.

"Don't even think about it" said a voice behind her and she turned to see Rosalie leaning against the wall and she grinned. "You'd have to take out the whole corridor, probably the whole school and chances are someone would escape, chances are someone would know what was going on." She shook her head. "Not to mention that is a lot of temptation for everyone else to deal with. Let me handle it"

And with that Rosalie turned and gave a long and pointed look at the girl, it was a magnificently long drawn out insult and then she giggled as if Lena had said something funny turning around her blonde hair swinging, the girl blushed a painfully funny colour and then turned away. Lena grinned, she couldn't help herself she was impressed.

"Nice one" she said slamming her locker shut.

"Alice and I were thinking about going shopping after school this Friday if you wanted to come along. We can get you some new stuff, Emmett kinda didn't think when he grabbed your stuff, I know you've got to missing underwear, I think he thought it was rude to go through your stuff like that—plus the smell of blood was rather overwhelming"

"Ok" Lena replied because what else was she going to say to that? She smiled hoisting her bag on her shoulder. She supposed it was something to look forwards to, an incentive of sorts that came when you didn't sink your teeth into the nearest human that gave you a funny look because you had somehow survived a suspiciously un-survivable thing.

"I don't have much money" she warned. "It might be a short trip"

Rosalie tipped her head back so the golden strands hit the week light and shone brighter and let out a laugh that Lena was sure had half of the football team weak at the knees.

"Oh honey, with Alice there is no such thing. And don't worry about money, your part of the family now, we pay"

Lena stopped dead. She was not sure how she felt about this but she was pretty sure that she did not want to be anyone's charity case. Rosalie seemed to understand this and shook her head her hair curling around her shoulders in a way that Lena was convinced two girls in her English class were trying to reproduce with curlers to no avail. She snapped her thoughts of that random thought and tried to listen to what Rosalie was saying.

"I know that might seem strange but it's true. Besides Alice thinks you need to get out of jeans and what Alice thinks generally happens especially when it comes to fashion. She's been itching to get into the fall line as soon as she got here she's been very good restraining herself"

Lena paused. She did not have the patience for a long time trying stuff on and some of that seemed to show on her face because Rosalie just smiled.

"Don't worry" she said in a hushed tone. "I'll make sure she keeps it down to four hours"

_Four hours? _

* * *

That night Lena went to her room after dinner cooked by Esme (some sort of pasta thing that Esme had cooked) and then took her blood in her cup up to her room to start her trig questions. Rosalie wondered why you would need Netflix to do homework but she decided not to question it. As Emmett had pointed out she was not Lena's mother and the girl didn't need to be presented with an option that might spook her. Rosalie had not been lying when she had said that she would be whatever Lena wanted. Just because she wanted the one thing she never could have before this didn't mean that she would risk it all.

She tapped her red nails against the counter and winced a little as some of it chipped off. Fortunately Esme didn't notice. Her mother hated it when they were too strong around the house—accidents happened after all but the little things they knew would create chaos made her mother annoyed.

Discreetly she slipped the shavings onto the floor.

Perhaps she could blame the dog for this one?

"Is everything alright Rose?" Esme said coming back into the room. Clearly she had been looking up recipes all day and she now had two big folders in her hand. Nessie was rather easy in her food choices and the dog had never cared what was put in front of him as long as he could eat it—after all _he had ate out of a dog bowl before. _Nessie had preferred blood to food and her favourite human food was raw steak so raw it was almost blue and there was only so much you could do with that.

Lena on the other hand loved her human food and enjoyed eating, she didn't like mashed potatoes nor was she a fan of mac and cheese nor anything that came out of a packet and she loathed shellfish as well but other than that Esme was having a field day learning how to cook new things and finally having a use for the bread oven she had implemented in the kitchen simply because 'it had looked right'.

"Yes" Rosalie said her hand on her chin. She watched with a wrinkled nose as Esme finished boxing up the leftovers.

"Why are you making so much food anyway?"

"Jacob's pack are coming up for a meeting face to face." Esme said smiling. "Carlisle says it's ok and they will be here in a weak but the amount those boys eat. Seth nearly doubled the food bill during that time that he was here"

Yes Rosalie thought, and he had nearly tripled the stench to boot. She didn't say that out loud though. She was not in the mood for a rebuke tonight.

"Do they know that Lena is currently living among us or did the dog keep them uniformed about that rather crucial fact?" she asked making no attempt to mask the concern she felt. Deep down if she was being brutally, brutally honest with herself then she trusted the two that were with her when it had been her alone that was protecting Bella. The female wolf she could give or take but she too had defected. The two that had come after Nessie had been born she wouldn't care to spit upon if she (or more likely they) were on fire.

Actually come to think about it Rosalie thought that was being beyond generous. She pulled herself out of her (rather pleasant) daydream to focus on what it was that Esme was saying. Lena she could hear was still upstairs in her room.

"Jacob has told them. I believe they will not be in the house long before they retreat to the cottage, and they will only be here three nights…and during those three nights we will of course be hospitable, wont we Rosalie?"

"Yes" Rosalie replied with her best simper. She thought briefly about sinking her teeth into one of the wolves before shuddering slightly once Esme's back was turned, considering how they smelt she was willing to bet they tasted even worse.

"Rosalie" she said finally into the silence. "Do you want to talk, about Lena?"

Rosalie shook her head, she was not entirely sure how much Lena could hear. Actually they might have to have a talk with her about privacy, especially when the wolves were here. She had no idea how they were going to take the idea of Lena, though didn't they communicate with each other in their head anyway?

"I don't know how I feel about it yet" she said finally to Esme whose heart shaped face was creased with concern. How she was only five years older than Rosalie and yet looked more like a mother than her own mother had done Rosalie did not know. Instead she avoided looking at the concern. Even though she didn't cry anymore she could feel the hitching in her throat. She did not want to think about the past or what had been taken from her or about the fact that Lena might not love her that way even though Rosalie couldn't help but want her too.

Esme's hand came out and touched her the two icy fingers interlocking. Rosalie managed to look up.

"I am sure it will all work out in the end. You are taking it one step at a time with Lena, if you rush into it too soon then believe me you could frighten her off. Sometimes I wonder if that was what I did wrong with Edward when he disappeared for some time. And of course all of you had your own families still alive when you came into this life with the exception of Jasper and Alice and they were so unsure of themselves when it came to developing relationships outside of their intimate setting, even Alice though she would never admit it. Two weeks ago Lena did not know what a vampire was and now she has been thrust into a world that she never believed existed and found that she is one of the six half vampires of it. It is a hard thing to take, once her emotions settle down then I am sure she will come to revaluate her relationships and perhaps see you as a mother. These things take time"

Rosalie nodded still not sure how to respond. It was nothing more than what she had told herself, what Emmett had told her and still she could not help but get her hopes up.

She didn't say anything.

She didn't think it mattered anyway.

Somehow she suspected that Esme understood.

* * *

Lena had hung in there for as long as she could but she was already struggling after hour two.

Fortunately Rosalie saw her and tapped Alice on the arm muttering something about thirst. Lena had been so relieved she thought she would hug Rosalie there and then in the middle of the shopping mall.

Seventeen bags of shopping was more than enough for her if she was being honest. She had never even seen seventeen bags of shopping before.

Alice was like a machine when It came to shopping.

And Rosalie was a machine when it came to paying.

"You really didn't have to spend that much on me" she said as she slipped into the red car. They had taken Rosalie's car as Jasper had pointed out that Alice's yellow turbo might be a bit conspicuous. The colour was eyewatering never mind the speed. Apparently all vampires liked to disobey the speed limits. Rosalie drove like a woman possessed and when Lena pointed that out to her she was told that Edward and Emmett were a lot worse.

"Comes with the never dying thing" Alice had chirped cheerfully. Lena decided the less she knew about that the better. She was not sure she wanted to test the immortal theory just yet.

"Oh by the way, some of Jacob's pack will be up tomorrow" Rosalie said ignoring completely Lena's concern that she was being spoilt (as she had been doing the last half hour). "So if you come back and the house stinks of dog don't worry, I imagine they taste worse than they smell so…"

Lena nodded trying not to show her worry. Jacob was fine, she kinda liked Jacob. But more of them?

She settled down in the car and tried to pretend that she was fine with that. Rosalie put the car into reverse and then sped down the road like they were in a car chase movie. Lena told herself sternly that this was real leather in this car and throwing up would not endear her to the Cullen's whatsoever.

More werewolves.

Fantastic.

* * *

**And there you are, hope you all enjoy. Let me know what you think and I will update sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-Jacobs's pack comes to town and the evening ends...not quite the way one would have hoped. **


	10. Parasite

**Hi, so here is another chapter of this story. I apologise for the lateness of this chapter but I caught the dreaded January cold and this had to be pushed back. This was always in the works and I hope you enjoy the new slant on this chapter and on this story. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this plot and Lena. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 10-Parasite

Jacob's pack comes to town and the evening ends…not quite the way one would have hoped.

* * *

It was Saturday and while most people had a bit of lie in Lena took it to the extreme and generally slept till noon. She had tried to claim it as a by product of being starved of blood for so long which she thought might be buying her a bit of sympathy. The reality was she was just lazy.

When she woke up about twelve she thought that she might want to put some attention into her appearance. She had been filled in—somewhat scattered information nonetheless—on the age old rivalry between vampires and werewolves and what had happened when Renesmee had been born (as if there was ever a reason to stick to contraception as there had been after she had heard that story…then she didn't know what would) and she had heard how crisis after crisis had been avoided.

She had also had a crash course in imprinting which sounded just as messed up as she thought even without any feelings attached. Edward had left the room during Jacob's conversation and had returned after half an hour dripping wet—Lena had a feeling that the trees over the lake had been thinned somewhat but had kept her mouth decidedly shut and had chewed at her straw. Personally she thought that while it might work for Nessie—and you know avoiding a war was a good thing she didn't dispute that, she thought that it was cheating somewhat.

After all what was the point of being alive if you didn't get screwed over by love?

Not that Lena cared about that, she'd had far too many bombshells on her plate to juggle another one.

The wolves coming were Seth (his sister Leah was coming but probably wouldn't be coming in the house due to her pathological hatred of any vampires though she had apparently developed an understanding with Rosalie due to the both of them wanting what they couldn't have—whatever the fuck that meant?) Quill and Embry, the later of the two Lena had thought with an internal snicker should have spent most of their childhoods having long conversations with their parents as to what they had done to deserve names like that.

She crawled into the bath waiting until the water was running and loading on her laptop an episode of the Man From U.N.C.L.E which Emmett insisted on her watching as he claimed was the 'last of the good TV' (though he would admit that Blue Bloods had merit.) One thing she had learnt through living here was that Emmett took television throughout the ages just as seriously as Edward took music—already there was a blanket ban on anything from the seventies and he said disco as if it was a dirty word.

She found a bath bomb from her supply (Alice and Rosalie had took one look at the LUSH shop and had stayed well away claiming the scent would overpower them) and slid into the bath and began the long process of washing her hair until it could hold it's own weight in suds. Then she applied her face exfoliator, grabbed her mug of blood and then settled down to an hour of time dedicated to her. Something that she would admit she had never gotten in her old foster homes, or indeed ever.

It was hard to believe that she had been living here for the last month. Time had flown by and she found that it was easier to come downstairs and ask for help or for dinner. She didn't feel like a stranger instead she found that she felt like family.

And that was fucking terrifying because that could come crashing down around her with a snap of her fingers or more to the point the snap of her teeth. She didn't want to slip up but she found when she was alone in school sometimes, or in the gym watching the girls shower or change that it would be so fucking easy to get what she wanted. And then the risk to the Cullen's would increase and the happy dream would come to an end. Perhaps she should hasten it—would probably hurt less when it did.

At that rather morose thought Lena ducked under the water, it was rather unnerving to be able to stay there for ten minutes with her eyes open staring above. She worked her conditioner into her hair and then rinsed it out and then ran her scrub over her so that her skin was buffed and polished before she pulled the plug. She stood there in front of the mirror looking at herself critically. The increased amount of food plus the blood she suspected, had made her gain weight. She still had her figure but she looked slender rather than skinny. Her hair was looking better and her skin was smoother not as pale as Rosalie but paler than Nessie who blushed sometimes. Lena had never blushed in her life and she didn't think she was about to start now.

She ran a brush through her hair as another episode loaded wincing as the blonde strands snagged. By the time she had used her body lotion and had dried her hair and then straightened it—though why she did that today when she never usually bothered she refused to think about and found a decent pair of jeans and a lilac jumper. She added a little bit of foundation and highlight and then tried to do that flicky eyeliner thing Alice had taught her how to do. Typically, it looked good on one eye and not on the other but the mascara she used really did look good. This Lena was rapidly learning was one of the perks of living in a house with people who had so much money a twenty five dollar mascara didn't mean shit. She found the Jimmy Choo boots that Rosalie had insisted she buy Lena (and Lena hadn't protested against that because they were of a black suede that came up to her knee and had a nice walkable heal and buttery soft insides that clung to her like she'd been born in them.

And Lena had never been one to wax poetic about shoes but they were just _that good. _

* * *

Esme was making eggs in the kitchen god bless her. She seemed to have realised that Lena's waking up and then not coming downstairs till half past two thing didn't mean she wasn't hungry and she slid three scrambled eggs and some sausage over the table to her.

"Cheers" Lena said taking a sip of the coffee which was also brewed to utter perfection. How a house full of vampires had learnt to cook this good she didn't know. Ok she knew that they'd had Bella as a human, Nessie and some wolves but still that only gave them maybe two years…

She was pondering this thought when she took in the mounds of potato that Esme was mashing.

"What's all that for?" she asked around a mouthful of egg. Esme smiled.

"The Wolves, they eat an obscene amount of food, something to do with the way they run I suppose. I'm making sixteen shepherd's pies and chances are between them, you and Nessie I'll have to make more. So I've got some pasta cooling down in the next room and some cinnamon rolls already in the fridge"

Lena nearly choked on her eggs.

"How long are they staying?" she asked.

"If there's a God out there, half the day" came the dry reply from the door. Rosalie dressed immaculately in a pair of grey jeans and a white blouse with a matching grey scarf wrapped around her neck. She smiled at Lena and then sat down at the table wrinkling her nose as she looked at the food.

"It' s better than greasy take out all over the carpet" Lena said adding more sugar to her second cup of coffee. Rosalie thought about this for a second.

"I suppose" she admitted grudgingly with a small smile that Lena knew she had tried to fight back. "Though considering Edward and Bella brought them into our lives I don't see why they shouldn't host them"

"Because" Esme said in a tone that told Lena that they had, had this conversation many, many times. "There isn't enough room in the cottage, I had that built with a spare room for Jacob and neither he nor Edward like it when he uses it."

"Yeah cause of the smell" Rosalie muttered.

"More because I don't think Jacob nor Edward want to hear nor have anyone overhear what Bella sounds like mid climax" Lena muttered.

Rosalie burst into peels of laughter her head titling backwards as she giggled.

"Oh" she said high fiving Lena. "I am so gonna use that one"

"Girls" Esme said reprovingly "Don't be mean." She turned back to the meal she was preparing but not before Lena could see that she too was trying very hard not to smile. She grinned taking her empty plate to the dishwasher.

"What's the giggling about" came a voice and she turned to see Emmett leaning against the doorframe like some huge Abercrombie and Flitch model. "Something I can tease dear Eddy about?" he looked delighted at the thought.

"Tell you later darling" Rosalie said, "And don't mess up my hair!" That was said as Emmett dropped a kiss onto the blonde strands his hands coming around Rosalie's waist as if an iron barrier and his chin resting on her shoulder. There was something unbelievable domesticated about the two of them and Lena couldn't help but wonder if she would ever get something like that for herself.

"There here" Emmett said. "They drove which means that the house isn't going to be full of half naked men but Jacob's bringing them up to the house now to watch the game."

Lena dithered.

"Should I go upstairs?"

"Edward?"

"I shouldn't" came a voice from the window and then Edward was walking through it looking like his nose had been thoughally put out of joint. Lena suspected that Bella who seemed to have no issues with the wolves and had been thrilled when she had learnt that they were coming, was still with them.

"They know, I've said that Lena's under control and they believe Jacob so…Seth wants to met you anyway. Quill doesn't care. Embry's a bit exasperated by what he calls another situation but he's not gonna say anything too bad"

Lena sniffed. A situation? Well.

The door to the house banged open. Rosalie gave a long sigh, closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them. Emmett chucked and kissed her again. "Come on babe" he said winking "Think of England and all that"

Rosalie said something very rude but hoped of her chair and pasted a smile so fake it looked like her beautiful face was going to crack. Edward snorted and then followed his siblings out. Esme pressed a kiss to Lena's cheek and followed her role as consummate hostess already in place though Lena knew it wasn't a role. Esme had that way of making people feel comfortable in her house even when every instinct they had was to feel uncomfortable.

She finished her coffee and turned to put the mug in the dishwasher when she heard the float of voices.

"So where's the other parasite?"

"Embry!"

"Hey I don't have a problem with it Jake, Mrs C, you know I don't, but I'm just wondering if she's gonna show that's all. You said she had more issues than Bella's truck did when you got a hold of it for the first time"

"Ignore him Mrs C" said another voice. "His mother dropped him on his head too many times as a kid"

But it was the word Parasite that had Lena in the room her temper up in a vain attempt to hide the hurt.

"Oi" she said as she came across Jacob flanked either side by three men, one was a head shorter than the other two and he grinned when he saw her, the other one had curly hair that was cropped short and the other one's face she couldn't see.

"Which one of you is Embry?"

The one on the far side of Jacob pushed himself off the back wall and came forwards. Lena stared. Ok she had not been expecting that.

He had high slanted cheekbones that framed dark eyes and thick black lashes. His hair was a mess on top of his head styled with some sort of fringe that looked as if it was going to fall into his eyes in that way that she had seen boys force their hair to do. He was in shorts and a green shirt that looked as if it had seen better days, his feet were bare. But by God he was well endowed. Lena who didn't know much about the physical attributes of man had to admit that he had wall of muscle around him that most people would kill for. His arms were like stone and bulging under his shirt. And he had left most of the buttons open showing abs that were so well formed even she had to look away and she was most certainly not the type of girl to do that.

Pulling herself away from the unholy thing that was standing before her it took Lena a moment to remember why she was furious.

"Parasite?" she snapped wrapping herself in her temper like it was some warm blanket. "How dare you, you twat. I'll have you know that I could kill even you before you took another step forwards"

She had expected some kind of response and she sneered as she got nothing. He was staring at her in a way she had never been stared at before even by Rosalie when she had woken up so scared and convinced she was a murderer going mad with hunger and bloodlust. She was not expecting him to stare at her like she hung the fucking moon. It was unnerving.

She shot another look at Rosalie who was staring at Embry with her mouth slightly open and her eyes narrowed. Jacob suddenly groaned. The boy next to her laughed. Edward looked like Christmas had come early.

"Jesus Em did it have to be her?"

Lena felt a spike of panic lance her. Rosalie still hadn't moved.

"What…what am I missing?"

"Ten bucks Rosalie rips his head off" Jasper said his own expression breaking into a grin.

"You did not" Emmett said his voice suddenly thunderous. Lena took a step backwards pressing herself against the wood, there was something really fucking wrong here. She could feel her breath coming fast and she wondered briefly if she was having a panic attack—actually come to think about it could half vampires have panic attacks…

Renesmee tilted her head to the side and touched Jacob's arm. Jacob nodded looking resigned even though he was grinning. "Oh yeah he did Ness" he said chortling. "Go to Uncle Seth a sec will you. I think your Aunt Rose might snap soon"

Nessie climbed into the arms of the man nearest to Lena. Still Embry had not taken his eyes off her.

"Eh…you want help Jake?"

"Nah" Jake said easily elbowing the other man who was bent over howling with laughter.

"Quill's here and Leah's outside. Plus I don't think Carlisle's gonna let her kill him"

"Rose" Carlisle said as Jasper reached out to grab Emmett's shoulder.

"You did not" Rosalie hissed at Embry who finally torn his gaze away from Lena to the half mad venomous vampire who was staring at him with an expression Lena had never seen before. She had never seen Rosalie like this before and she suddenly understood why vampires were considered the most dangerous creatures on the planet.

"Hey." He said with some kind of dopy grin that really didn't help his case. "It's not like I can help It you know—"

But he didn't get to finish that sentence because whatever control Rosalie had been clinging too suddenly snapped and without warning, she arched her body in one long fluid motion, shook of Carlisle's arm and went for Embry's open, exposed throat.

* * *

**And there it is, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the next one which I really hope will come sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-As the mud well and truly hits the fan, Lena goes to hide in her bedroom. Rosalie goes for the kill and Seth goes for the popcorn. **


	11. Fracture

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I really enjoyed writing this one and getting into the head of Lena again and I really enjoyed writing Esme who I think is one of those wonderfully underused characters who were never really explored past chapter 15 of the first book. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**And I hope you enjoy, I hope to publish the next chapter soon. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 11-Fracture.

As the mud well and truly hits the fan, Lena goes to hide in her bedroom. Rosalie goes for blood (and the soft skin of Embry Call's throat if she can) and Seth goes for popcorn.

* * *

For a second she stared at Rosalie her body arching in a graceful and yet predatory moment and for one tenth of a second where time seemed to stretch on for endless possibilities Lena thought that she could understand why vampires were the most dangerous predators in the world because she couldn't see in that moment how Embry would survive.

And she found that she was more than a little surprised at how much she wanted him too.

She stared as Embry's whole body seemed to shimmer and then he was gone his clothes ripping off his (admittedly very well toned body) and then he was twisting in mid air as he became a wolf before her very eyes—it seemed strange that despite seeing Jacob nearly every day she had never seen him in wolf form and she had never seen him transform. Embry was huge there was no other word for it and suddenly it was like the tables had turned and she was worried not about him but about Rosalie who had thrown herself at the mass of fur and sent them crashing out of the front door damaging the wood and the structure of the house in the process.

Within seconds Emmett, Jacob, Quill, Carlisle, Jasper, Edward and Bella had gone after them but the snarling carried on so loud it was like they had never left the room. Alice sighed taking in the damage and closed her eyes as if she was shifting through the future.

"Shouldn't take more than week to repair Esme. The structure's not damaged and Rosalie managed a clean throw across the river so she's missed most of the house which I suppose is a good thing. I didn't see this coming—God I hate being blind—but Carlisle's there and Edward and Jacob and the other one so I doubt there's going to be anyone hurt, well nobody on our side anyway, and I don't think they'll need you at all Seth especially if your sister is out by the river. It's just annoying, I never could see the wolves and Lena and Nessie have always been the worst of the blind spots in my visions. _I hate being blind_"

"Good" Esme said finally with a sigh. "Well I suppose that's the best I can hope for. And I don't blame you Alice, I doubt anyone could see this coming." She shook her head her soft billows of caramel curls shifting down her back.

"Ah Mrs C considering that's the best you could hope for" Seth said with a chuckle. "Come on Nessie, let's go and grab some popcorn and take bets on whose gonna win, I actually wouldn't put it past Blondie, I never got to see her fight but I bet she's got a wicked kick that will crack a few ribs"

And with that he moved past Lena and into the kitchen Nessie pouting her displeasure and her concern. "Nah" Lena heard him say. "Jake's a natural kid, he's not gonna get a scratch on him"

Lena stared for a second and then turned back to see Esme watching her with concern in her butterscotch eyes.

"Are you alright dear?"

Lena thought about it.

"I think I'm gonna be sick" she said honestly and as soon as she said it she felt it.

She bolted up the stairs and then the second set that led her bedroom, thrust the door to the bathroom open, hit the floor with a cracking sound and vomited hard into the toilet. She felt a gust of wind and then hands pulling back her hair as her body heaved with a combination of shock and something else she didn't want to name nor did she think she could.

Finally when her body had finally stopped heaving and she was sure she had thrown up stomach lining she leaned back and felt arms wrap around her. It was a certainty that it was Esme and Lena felt tears on her face that she was too tired to wipe away. She hoped that Esme would think it was down to the vomit and not due to the emotions that were coursing through her like drugs.

"Sorry" she said as Esme reached with one hand to flush the toilet and the vomit away.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that sweetheart. Over the last century I've seen so much that vomit that doesn't even bother me. How are you feeling? Do you understand what happened down there?"

"He did that imprinting thing that happened with Nessie didn't he?"

Because deep down Lena had known that was what it was. She had seen that look of devotion, of surprise but then joy on Jacob's face whenever Nessie did something even if it was as mundane as drawing him a picture. She was not stupid, she had put two and two together and she had feeling that, that was why she had upchucked her breakfast in the toilet.

"Yes I think he did" Esme said with a sigh. "And Rosalie reacted…well…she was never going to react well to that." She shook her head again. "Poor boy's going to pay for that"

"Does that mean I have to be with him?" Lena asked finally moving so she was leaning against the opposite wall and feeling like she couldn't breathe. Esme shifted a little so that they could see each other from this new position.

"No of course not" she said softly. "I don't believe it works like that because if it did Edward would have murdered Jacob before Bella had transformed. She very nearly tried once as well…I think, the way it was explained to me was that it's like having someone in your corner all the time—pardon the expression this is Jacob after all—he's whatever you want him to be, if you want to be Embry's friend for the rest of your life then he'll be your friend, if you want him to be more then he'll be more, if you want to be with someone else he'll support you. All it is, is the speeding up of what would have probably happened anyway. But if you want to take your time then I'm sure he'll understand that"

Lena nodded latching onto that with all she had left in her. She was not ready for a relationship, she wasn't sure if she ever would be ready for a relationship, two months ago she had been a normal, if not somewhat underfed teenager, there had been too much that had happened to her for her to comprehend that happening.

"He won't age though; I don't age so he wont either. he'll keep being sixteen, he won't get a family or anything else. He'll just have me. That's not enough"

"Says who?" Esme said with an expression that Lena supposed was outrage but it looked all wrong on her face and ended up coming across as rather adorable. "Of course, your enough, any boy would thank his lucky stars to have you in his life, and…and Embry and Jacob and Quill, even the rest of them know that there's a chance they will never age. They've known that since they transformed. I think the only one who really wants to stop is Leah. The rest of them know that the chances of them retiring isn't a possibility. And Embry…Embry in some way will always need you. It's not a connection that can be broken, at least not the way I understand it."

"I don't think I want that though, there's no choice in this—I mean what if he ends up hating me?"

"Why would he do that?" Esme asked turning her head to the side and watching Lena with those wide expressive butterscotch eyes. "Why would he hate you? You are a wonderful girl Lena. Any man would be lucky to have you. Embry certainly would be lucky to have you. In fact he should go down on his knees and thank his lucky stars that fate has decided to attach him to you"

"Rosalie doesn't like him" Lena had no idea why that was an issue but (though she really did—even if she didn't want to admit it at that very moment) she felt compelled to point that out. After all Rosalie was going for the skin of the man with the impressive abs who was apparently destined for her. She forced herself to grit her teeth and try to pretend that her heart wasn't thumping hard at the thought of Rosalie not liking Embry or trying to kill him. At this point she didn't think she could take anything else.

"Rosalie will come to like him if you want her to" Esme said in a rather cryptic way. Lena decided that she was not going to dwell on that whatsoever. Not now at any rate. Instead she nodded absentmindedly. Esme seemed to pick up on the fact that she was utterly desperate to be alone and stood up her skirt gracefully falling in all the right places as if she did stuff like this everyday.

"Would you like me to bring anything up?"

"No. I don't…I don't…I want to stay up here for a while. I don't want to come down to see anyone, and I don't want anyone to see me. Can you tell them that?" she looked up feeling rather desperate. Right now she knew that seeing anyone would tip her completely over the edge into a mess of emotions that she really didn't want to deal with in the public perspective even if she trusted—most of the people downstairs.

She also didn't want to see Embry post vomiting. She had enough problems feeling inadequate whenever Rosalie was around, she didn't need this as well.

"I'll tell them" Esme said gently, her kiss when it came down on Lena's head was soft and Lena found that she was not afraid of Esme getting to close. It really was impossible to be afraid of the woman or to feel unsettled in her presence. Lena even managed a small smile something which ten minutes ago she would have said was near impossible.

She was left in the room alone.

* * *

Finally finding some strength in her legs she found that she was struggling to breath, for a second she thought she might heave again but she realised she could still hear the snarling that was coming from the front yard.

She snapped the door shut and locked it moving so that she could pull the heavy curtains across the window plunging the room into darkness. She wiped her face, changed her clothes and curled into bed wrapping a pillow around herself in a vein attempt to have something to grab. She reached for her phone found the longest ASMR video she could find and rammed the volume on as loud as she could. It didn't do anything to detract from the snarling but it had quieted down now so either Rosalie had killed Embry or Carlisle had gotten them to stop.

Personally Lena had her money on Rosalie but that was by the by.

Weather it was the adrenaline that was still coursing through her, the shock that was rapidly wearing off or the fact that her body was still coping post throwing up she felt exhausted beyond anything she had felt before and that was including the time she had slaughtered two people in their own house. She felt her eyes close and when she drifted off to sleep it was to a rather strange dream where she saw something with blonde hair throw herself at a wolf with brown eyes that seemed to stare at her with a love she had never seen, even as the vampire ripped his throat to shreds with her teeth.

All in all it had not been one of her better nights Lena thought as the dream made her start upwards. She was covered in sweat and shivering and she crawled into the shower feeling as weak as a baby. She let the cold water hit her not caring that she was getting wet and then when she felt like she could stand she grabbed a new set of pyjama's and curled up back into bed wrapping her damp hair in a bun.

Her last cohesive thought as she fell back asleep was that the snarling and screaming had stopped.

And this time when she went to sleep she didn't dream at all.

* * *

**And there it is, I hope that this is ok and I will see you all for the ne****xt chapter. **

**Next Chapter-Rosalie and Emmett come to terms with the fact that they now have a werewolf encroaching on their territory as they both come to terms with how they feel about Lena. On a side note most of the next chapter if not all will take place between Emmett and Rosalie. **


	12. With Intent To Die

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I hope you all enjoy, as I said in the previous chapter this entire piece of work is between Rosalie and Emmett and it was fun to write this chapter. **

**And let me know what you think as always I will try and update sooner rather than later. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter and this plot. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 12-With Intent To Die.

Rosalie and Emmett come to terms with the fact that they now have a werewolf encroaching on their territory as they come to terms with how they feel about Lena. On a side note most of the next chapter, if not all will take place between Rosalie and Emmett.

* * *

Rosalie caught him unawares. She managed to throw Embry (and that was a really fucking stupid name wasn't it?) across the river taking out three trees before he rebounded. Before she could sink her teeth into his throat (and she bet he tasted as disgusting as he smelled) Emmett was there his own teeth snarling and his feet bare in the mud. Rosalie took a fifth of a second to wonder why on earth he had taken his shoes and socks off but before she could ask her husband what he was thinking (he should know by now that mud trampled into the house left marks that Alice would bitch about for the next century) but Embry Call had managed to throw her backwards and Rosalie was reminded quite sharply just why she was here and how much she hated him.

How dare he?

How dare he?

How dare this miserable, useless, mutt imprint on her…on her…

Oh what the hell she may as well admit it to herself (and to Edward probably because the fucker was always listening in when he wasn't wanted), her daughter.

"Not like I can help it Rose" Edward said pulling Embry off her with a long arm. Jacob showed up and the two wolves went into some deep kind of conversation thing as Rosalie got to her feet snarling and turned her attention to her husband who was staring at the wolf who had knocked her down as if he wanted very much to continue where she had left off.

Actually why wasn't he?

She knew the answer to that question even before Jasper arrived looking like Christmas had come early the bastard. Alice came to stand by him the smallest person by far and then Carlisle who came clearly with the intention of stopping the forest from being obliterated.

Even with the calm making her stand still Rosalie couldn't help but curl her lip. Emmett came to stand by her his own butterscotch eyes bleeding fury. Rosalie however was feeling rather put out. She could have killed the damn creature six ways to Sunday and with no remorse whatsoever but her damn family had to get in the way. Now she had a ruined outfit, dirt in her hair and under her fingernails, the possibility of a werewolf son-in-law and the continuing smug smirk Edward employed that Bella thought for some reason was attractive.

Edward snorted again, Rosalie decided to enact some sort of payback.

Carlisle reached out to touch her on the shoulder. Rosalie did not throw him off but she wanted to. She glowered as the two wolves changed back to human and the boy Quill or Ink or whatever the fuck his name was passed them some shorts so that Rosalie did not have the mental, eternal scaring of seeing all of Jacob Blacks shortcomings.

Edward snorted again as if he found her thoughts amusing but Rosalie couldn't help but feel like crying—how, how had this happened? How had this happened? How had she ended this with this…she'd had Lena's comforting presence in her life for all of five minutes and then this wolf-child had come along and had ensured that he had some claim on her for the rest of eternity. And it was the rest of eternity wasn't it? Everywhere they went this wolf would follow them.

She would never be able to get the smell out of the carpet. Or the curtains, or the sheets.

Why? Why did this have to happen?

"It's not like I can help what happened?" the boy said and Rosalie realised she must have been speaking out loud. He looked rather sheepish as well he should.

"Look we don't choose who we imprint on and…and I really didn't think it would be a half-vampire. Especially not one like her. Oh hell did I scare her? I didn't want to scare her Mr Cullen, I really didn't"

"Lena's made of tougher stuff than you realise Embry" Carlisle said with a smile the traitor. "She'll come around."

Rosalie snorted.

"Lena" Embry said as if testing out the name on his tongue and a stupid looking grin was etched on his face that Rosalie wanted to smack off his face. "Lena" he said again with that dopy grin.

"Ugh" Rosalie said turning around and walking away. If she stayed she was going to seriously do some damage and chances are the rest of her family would never let her forget it.

If she'd been human she'd have cried with how unfair it was. Lena did not deserve the burden of this boy especially if she didn't want him. Rosalie had listened with increasing scepticism when Jacob had tried to explain the concept of imprinting to her after Renesmee's birth and while she could admit to herself in the privacy of her mind that she thought Jacob was good for Nessie (certainly he seemed to be able to keep her safe and he had been prepared to run with her and that was really all that mattered) the entire concept of wolf soul mates had been hard for her to get her brain around even when she admitted that the way she felt for Emmett, the way Edward had felt for Bella and Jasper and Alice, Carlisle and Esme was stronger than the usual human love.

"Rose" came a voice behind her.

"It's not…why does it have to be her?" Rosalie asked turning back to her husband who was watching her with butterscotch eyes that were no longer angry but just worried. They were now stood on top of a cliff snow under their feet and Rosalie had no idea how many miles they had tracked but she knew they were nowhere near the house.

"It's not a death sentence Rose. Nessie doesn't seem to mind."

Rosalie shook her head. She couldn't tell Emmett was really going on but then again Emmett didn't need to hear her say it. They had been so intertwined with each other over the years—through all the good and the bad and the messy that they didn't have to talk about what was bothering them they just knew. And Emmett knew about the one thing that Rosalie had ever wanted, the one thing that if she was being honest with herself had drawn her to the girl in the cafeteria in the first place.

"You know Momma Bear's pretty sexy on you"

But then again he was Emmett and therefore nothing changed.

"Em"

"No I'm serious, it's sexy Rosalie. Makes me wonder…well…sometimes I suppose."

Rosalie opened her mouth to speak but for a moment the image that Emmett had potentially opened up was so strong she couldn't focus on anything at all. Even breathing, which technically she didn't have to do but did with the same easy way she had done when she was human. Rosalie was not the masochist that she had been as a newborn or even within the first fifty years of her life as a vampire when she had imagined the life she had lost. All the Hales were dead now, all the Kings were as well—at least the ones she had grown up with and there was nobody left alive who remembered her with Vera dying the year before Bella had entered their lives. There was no reason to torture herself with the thought of babies with Emmett's dimples and her eyes long blonde hair.

Of course then Lena had come into their lives. She had come into their lives with her long blonde hair and her dimples and her eyes and now she had just begun to understand what those feelings were about she found that she now had to accommodate a werewolf into those plans.

After all they were still technically forbidden to enter La Push even if the wolves didn't care about killing them. Supposing this Embry wanted to take Lena far away. She voiced this fear out loud and Emmett slung an arm across her front dragging her back a little so that she was resting on the huge expanse that was her husband's muscular chest.

"I wouldn't worry about that" he said finally. "I'd be more worried about how she'd take the news that she's bonded to a teenager who explodes. Rose…if you spend the rest of eternity worried she's going to leave us you'll make us both fucking miserable. Children always leave their parents at some point. Edward did. He came back. And he's not leaving again"

Rosalie nodded hardly hearing him if she was being really honest with herself but something he said made her push back away from him, turn towards him and stare.

"Parents?"

Emmett grinned showing off the dimples that Lena had and Rosalie felt almost as if her dead heart was beating again—well, certainly panging against her chest walls. She had never heard Emmett use that word not even when he was talking about Esme and Carlisle. In fact Emmett didn't even talk about his own parents to her and Rosalie had never asked believing that her partner deserved a few secrets of his own though that was often impossible what with Edward and his irritatingly freakish gift.

"Come on Rose did you need me to say it?"

"A month ago you didn't."

"A month ago I didn't know the kid as I do now. And a month ago I didn't see you around her as I do now. Your happy when she's around, happier in a way I have never seen you before and sometimes I feel the same way. I'm not sure I could be a father in the same way that Edward is a father to Nessie but I could be one in the same way Carlisle is for us. We all have to find out our roles in this. But yes, sometimes when I look at her I do see what we could have had. What we could have. I just…it's harder for me than it is for you"

And Rosalie who knew her husband knew that, that was all she was going to get out of him on the subject.

"Does it have to be a fucking werewolf?" she said finally into the abyss that was the edge of the actual cliff that they were standing on. Emmett chuckled into her hair.

"No Em I'm serious, could she not just find a nice vampire to settle down with? Does it have to be someone like _him?_ I mean…we are never going to get the smell out of the carpet and our food bills will be astronomical"

Emmett laughed his booming laughter. Rosalie ignored him and refused to smile. She was rather good at pretending not to be amused by what was going on around her. Being in a house surrounded by Edward, Emmett and Jasper and their antics tended to do that to you after a while.

"Since when did you care about that?"

"Since we apparently became respectable parents, that's why. And he is not spending the night. I'll give a whole new meaning to the words castration if he tries."

"Darlin" Emmett said his accent more pronounced as he slung an arm around her and pulled her close to him. "You'll have to get in line behind me."

Rosalie laughed and kissed him even as the wind hit her hair from behind and whipped it around her into a wave of golden blonde.

"We need to talk to Lena. Put our cards on table and then see what she wants. She may want more she may not want us to play this role in her life at all. And we have to be prepared for that angel"

Rosalie nodded wining a little at the thought of it and then at what Le…no at what her daughter must be thinking about previous events right now.

"We should go home and see if she's alright. She must have hundreds of questions about that dratted animal. We'll let her decide what she wants to do about him before we speak to her about her place within this family ok?"

Rosalie nodded lost in a daze of happiness as she and Emmett walked back to the house. She was a mother. She was a _mother_. It felt _right. _

Actually now she was thinking past this feeling she had to admit that perhaps if she got to keep feeling this happy then the additional presence of the werewolf was not so bad.

Of course she should have known it was too good to be true. Nothing ever lasted.

Not even this.

* * *

**Next Chapter-Lena and Embry have a conversation about their roles in this brand new brave world. Most of the next chapter will be between Lena and Embry. As with this chapter it will be all one scene so to speak.  **


	13. Start Digging

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this one is short but I am in the build up to a twist so ones afterwards should be longer. Anyway I hope you like this chapter and I will endeavour to keep the next one coming sooner rather than later. Especially as we are over halfway in this story. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter.**

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 13-Start Digging

Lena and Embry have a conversation about the roles that they are to play in this brave new world and because of this most of the this chapter will be between Embry and Lena. As with this chapter it will contain all one scene.

* * *

It was the morning when Lena woke up. It took her a minute to realise that she had fallen asleep, it took her another minute to realise what had happened the night before and why her belly ached with a silent hunger and her face was stiff with dried tears.

And then it all came back in droves.

Embry, Rosalie, Imprinting.

Oh Holy Shit.

There was a pause where she stood there in her room and then she decided that she had never been a coward and she was not going to start now. Instead she forced herself to go to the bathroom, wash her face with her cleanser that smelt like lavender and attempted to run a brush through her hair. There was no salvaging it but she tied the long blonde strands into a loose pony and then a loose plat, wrapping it in a bun so that she looked fierce (or so she liked to think) rather than like she had been hysterical meltdown, and she redid her eyeliner (for the fact that she knew that she made her eyes pop and not for the fact that it shelved a good fifteen minutes because her hands were shaking) and then got dressed into a rather nicer pair of dark blue jeans and a lilac jumper. She didn't bother with shoes. Right now the feeling of the cold wooden floor against her bare skin was helping rather than hindering.

She pattered downstairs and then walked towards the main room. There was still hushed voices though the TV was on and the shouts from the room told her that some sort of sporting match was on. She dithered wondering if she was actually brave enough to knock on the door and then her stomach shifted unpleasantly and she decided that yes—right now she was that much of a coward and she was going to go and get something to eat.

The fridge was always well stocked even if the house seemed to be free of vampires for the time being. There was a pause where she stood there again seeing without seeing the food and the blood stocked in the fridge and then she reached for the blood bag piercing it open and filling a cup with it trying (and failing) not to get it all over the marble countertops. Somehow Esme had a way of doing it that made it look easy. Lena naturally had to destroy most of the house in order to get what she wanted.

She also found some chicken and she set about frying it dipping it in a generous amount of chilli sauce. She was not in the mood to be polite today. Besides, if the wolf didn't like how she ate than he didn't have to stay and that might make things a hell of a lot easier even if her traitorous heart gave a small little stutter at the thought.

She ripped off a piece of chicken with her teeth, it was white through and she wished she had left it a little undercooked. She imagined the fact that she wanted her meat raw since childhood (or what she had thought was childhood she was probably a lot older than she thought she was) was a side effect of what she was.

"That looks nice"

She looked up her mouth full (and probably smeared with sauce) to see Embry there watching her. She swallowed.

"Blood's better" she said but to his credit (admirably) he did not look disturbed by that information. She gnashed her teeth together scowling at her plate as he took an uninvited seat opposite her.

"So I suppose you know then? They told you?"

"Where are they?"

"Well, Blondie and her husband went off for a walk after the whole trying to kill me thing…Edward and Bella took Ness of hunting and the other four decided to go as well but I think Carlisle just wanted to make sure Blondie was alright, she gave me a good run there…of course she couldn't kill me but she gave it her best shot"

"Good" Lena said though she knew it was without conviction. Apparently, Embry thought so as well because he smiled and that really did make his cheekbones stick out in his face which was distinctly unfair. Lena had to look away least she do something utterly stupid and embarrassing like reach out and touch them. She folded her hands onto her lap and twisted her fingers together using them to tighten her resolve.

"You don't mean that" he said with a small smile. There was a pause where there was nothing to fill the rather difficult silence and then Lena decided that if they were going to have this conversation then they were going to have this conversation on her terms and not on some teenage wolf boy who really should be wearing a shirt.

"So, this imprinting thing" she said reaching for her blood and taking a huge gulp. She noticed that Embry didn't look remotely bothered and reluctantly gave him some credit because she knew it looked strange.

"What does that mean? What? We are soulmates? We just…fall into bed or whatever and make little wolf-vampire babies? Because I should tell you that even if that was possible I'm not sure if I want that"

"Didn't they tell you I can be whatever you want me to be?"

Lena nodded unable to meet his eyes because she was not sure what she would see. Instead she decided to say what she was thinking because—well she had always done that and so far it hadn't brought the heavens crashing down around her.

"I'm not sure I know what that is" she said finally. "It's just…this whole world is so new and so…strange…that I'm not sure I can fit anything else into my life right now. And I know that's probably not what you want to here and I know you have your own life now wherever that may be and…and…" she trailed off not sure what she was going to say next and well aware that she was making a complete and utter arse of herself.

Embry's fingers reached out and touched her chin forcing her to look at him. She noticed that his hand was calloused and that his skin was the same temperature as hers and not as cold as Rosalie's which was reminded her of someone who had spent time outside in the rain for hours before coming inside. She also noticed that his eyes were very brown and very soft as they looked at her. Lena's insides squirmed a little and she was suddenly very aware that she had no experience in this department whatsoever. She did not know what she was doing when she came across men like this. She didn't know any boys she had never really paid any of them attention and any attention she had gotten back had been mixed between the ones who had thought that she was attractive and the ones who had thought she was half mad.

"I can wait you know" he said finally. "For you I'd wait. Besides…we don't have to do anything, we don't have to be anything if you don't want…and…and I like to think this has nothing to do with fate. I like to think we'd have found each other at some point, vampires and werewolves be damned"

Lena giggled she couldn't help herself. Embry's smile nearly split his whole face in half.

"I don't know when I'll be fully immortal." Lena warned him. "My body…how it works is different to Ness. I don't know how my genetic make up works you see because I didn't get blood from birth…my vampire side, the side that controls all that's been starved for so long…"

There was another long heartbeat that seemed to pass between them. Embry did not look worried in the slightest, in fact he looked amused. Lena felt he was trying very hard not to laugh at her and therefore he didn't speak, only stared at her with at fascinated look on his face that she didn't want to understand. Lena felt exasperation run through her as well as something else she didn't want to name. She was giving him several outs here and he wasn't taking them. There was either something very, very wrong with him or…well…she wasn't sure if she was ready to deal with the other possibility. Lena was not sure how to deal with people who put her well being and her interests first. She had never really had anyone like that…well…she had Rosalie.

Who had tried to kill Embry.

Fuck this was very confusing.

"Ok" she said slowly. "But you should know something else before you do anything you know…go or stay or whatever…" she trailed off gulping slightly as she opened the channels in her mind trying to find the connection to the mind that was suddenly glowing like bright gold and clearer than anything she had ever heard before even though she had once sworn she had heard nothing better than Edward's thoughts that dismal day in the cafeteria. For a second she admired the connection and the fact that it was better than anything she had heard before. Jacob and Nessie had been clear but they had never been this which was strange because Jacob and Embry were essentially the same kind of species.

And then suddenly she heard him clear as any day of the week.

_"__Stunning. Honestly how does she not see that. And as if waiting would be a problem. Anyone would count themselves lucky to wait an eternity for her. Of course there's Blondie to contend with but…well…she does know cars that could be something…" _

_"__Yeah like she's gonna let you near her BMW"_

_"__HOLY—" _

Embry pulled backwards nearly falling off his stool and catching the marble granite tabletop in a way that had his fingers digging into the marble and leaving a dent with a force that sounded like a small explosion. Lena took a moment to mentally apologise to Esme wherever she was about the amount of smoothing out that it would take to get the tabletop back to its smooth position and then watched as Embry clambered back up looking like the world had just been rocked and he was the only person left standing.

Lena intimately knew the feeling.

"Sorry" she said finally feeling rather small again. "I take it nobody told you about that."

"You can communicate through minds?"

Lena nodded and began to explain about how she thought it was a TV channel and how humans had a bit of a blurred reception, she could hear vampires a bit more clearly and that Jacob and Nessie were clearer still but she stopped on just how clear Embry was. No need to utterly terrify him—especially when this…well whatever it was…was in it's delicate stage.

Embry was silent for a very long time and when he spoke his voice was deceptively cool.

"And you've always known you could do this. Even when you didn't know about vampires?"

Lena nodded.

There was another heartbeat of silence then just as her nerves were about to give out his face split into another one of those dazzling grins and Lena felt like she was about to collapse with some kind of emotion that she didn't want to name.

"That's amazing" he said looking like a kid who had just come down on Christmas day to see hundreds and hundreds of presents under the Christmas Tree.

Lena couldn't help it. She really couldn't. She grinned back and thought (to herself) as she could hear the tell tale signs of vampire running in the distance, that this imprinting thing might not be so bad.

But first she had to get it past Rosalie.

Somehow she didn't think that was going to be easy.

But then again, no relationship that was worth anything was. That was why it was worth, everything.

* * *

**And there you are, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I will try and have the next one up for you soon. **

**Next Chapter-Lena and Carlisle have a conversation about Lena's genetic structure. Lena has a run in with a girl from school and Rosalie attempts to talk to Lena about her position in Lena's life resulting in panic, confusion and pain. **


	14. Great And Unfortunate Things

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this one does build towards the main crux of the story that is coming soon. **

**And thank you all so much for your patience-I hope you enjoy. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine, just Lena and the upcoming plot. **

**And i will try and update sooner than later. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 14-Great And Unfortunate Things

Lena and Carlisle have a conversation about Lena's genetic structure. Lena has an identity crisis about who she is and where she originated from and Rosalie is overhead resulting in Lena being filled with confusion and pain and taking the beginning of a road she never wanted to take. Chapter does end on a cliff hanger-of sorts.

* * *

Embry left a week after he arrived. The wolves had never intended to stay long but she knew that there was not going to stay forever, apparently there was loads of issues to do with their reservation, protection and such. Lena had tried to listen but Embry had been half naked sprawled over the couch playing a game and she had tried not to look. She had been writing an essay about the beginning of the Air Force in the United States for her American History class and she was trying not to stare at the mass of taught skin that was currently being flaunted in front of her. Embry was doing well on his promise that he would not pressure her into anything and he seemed to be happy whenever she was in the room but she couldn't help but feel embarrassed whenever she was near him and Lena was not used to feeling that out of sorts about anyone or anything.

Instead she was spending a lot of time hiding away in her bathroom which boasted a bath and also a table near it that allowed her to watch Netflix as she spent time wondering just what the hell she had ever done to deserve this crap?

When she did go downstairs it was to eat.

She was almost relieved that Embry went on the Wednesday before she went to school slipping her his phone number and making her promise to speak to him if she ever needed him. "Even if all you need to do is vent, call me. I promise I'm a really good listener"

Lena had stared at him and then kissed him on the cheek pretending to ignore the fact that she could hear Rosalie hiss from behind the curtains. Lena had come to ignore it, she had not yet had a conversation with Rosalie, about Embry, about the role that he had played in her life, about everything…and anything…she did not know how to mention it herself in the safety (depending on how safe she thought her own mind) never mind how she felt speaking out loud. She did not want to think about the number on the card that was currently residing on the desk in her bedroom under her algebra book (a sure sign that it would remain hidden until further notice). Instead she turned her attention in the week that followed to other, slightly more pressing matters that had been weighing upon her mind since she had, had the conversation with Embry. It had opened up so many doors that she was unsure of what was going on.

She had decided to come to the decision to talk to Carlisle.

She had to know all the ins and outs about her health.

That was something that she had to focus upon.

In the week that followed she spent most of her time when she was not at school or alone in her room determinedly not thinking about half naked werewolves with Carlisle. The conversation that had taken place between Embry and herself had in some cases thrown up more questions than she had been prepared to think about and now that she was here, thinking about them, she thought that she was ready to start the research and furthermore ready to hear the answers that they would bring. Regardless.

For Lena that was not one small thing.

Carlisle had compiled what seemed like years and years of research that he had been working on in months. Unlike Lena he did not need to sleep and though he seemed to work he also had time on his hands—more than she had ever seen.

His office (with that bizarre and very intimidating wooden cross hanging over the door like some sort of benediction) was spread with files and books and laptops. He had clearly been looking into this but weather it was because of Nessie or down to her then she did not know. She was still unsure of how much of the family history she had a right to know about. Already she was aware that there were somethings that never seemed to be discussed without a horrible awkwardness staining the very air around it. Even Lena could see these things and she had never been what one would have called tactful.

But she was learning and she was learning fast.

She knew by now that you didn't talk about or raise questions about Rosalie's past. Neither did you so about Alice's. Emmett had told her all about his childhood on the railroad at Tennessee including the stories of his family and Lena had listened thinking back on what time would have been like in the 1930s where life while hard in it's own way was simple in it's own way. She had never before had a vivid picture like that before, painted for her in that way. She could almost see it right before her very eyelids before sleep claimed her.

That was one of the things that she knew about, it was clear that besides asking about Rosalie's history it was wrong to ask about Alice's. Edward had taken pity on her one night when she had commented on an essay she was thinking of writing for almost half of her credits on the First World War in America (to which he became almost giddy when it came to helping her with) and had explained that Alice did not know much about her past and that because of that she was incredibly vulnerable. Lena had not been sure what she was supposed to say to that but she had confessed in that moment that she was thinking after she left school to major in History to which Edward had smiled that dimpled smile and had offered to help her no matter what. She could almost understand what it was that made Bella act…well…like she acted when she was around Edward. He had a certain charm after all even if it did not appeal to Lena on a romantic level.

Then there was the fact that Alice had no memories of her human life whatsoever and the fact that Edward had left Bella—and someone called James who Lena had learnt should never be mentioned otherwise Edward tended to put his fist through a wall and Esme got upset over the fact that plastering dried unevenly. You didn't mention the Volturi unless you had to because that had the same effect only it was Bella who ended up shattering one of the mirrors when she had thrown the (most gaudy but yet gorgeous) diamond necklace that Lena had found straight into it.

But above all one of the few things that Lena had learnt throughout the weekends and the nights where she came home afterschool to a family that seemed to have very little boundaries despite the fact that they were all in their own way exceptionally different was that you never asked Rosalie what happened to make Carlisle turn her into a vampire. She had heard mostly everyone's story from the rather sweet ones (Jasper and Alice's first meeting and Emmett's childhood right up until he was mauled by a bear) to the downright disturbing events (Jasper before Alice and the story of Renesmee's birth—if there was a reason to not have children it listening to that) and to the incredibly romantic ones (anything to do with Esme and Carlisle's admittedly rather heart-warming story). The only one she had not heard was Rosalie's and yet whenever she was about to ask Edward (cheating no doubt by reading which direction her thoughts were going) and would either distract her or shoot her a look while screaming at such a shrill pitch it made her wince, to shut up.

So yes she knew that there were secrets, terrible secrets that had to be kept hidden and when she woke up to realise that it had been two months—the longest that she had ever been in one place before—and she found that she didn't regret it. She had been a part of something like this, something that felt so real, she had never had an actual family.

Of course, just as she came to that conclusion she was reminded of her mother, her actual mother who she had killed she supposed when she had hacked her way out of the womb. She found that when she was supposed to be sleeping, she was staring at the ceiling and thinking of the woman, no she thought, the teenager no doubt who had met the best looking man in the world and had thought that he would be there forever. She might have thought he was out of this world—Lena thought that the unnamed woman who she thought she might have gotten her blonde hair from and her height and her cheekbones would never have guessed who her father really was and she had given him everything and had wanted a happy ending with him.

And then thoughts turned to her biological father, she wondered late into the night closing of her mind so that Edward couldn't hear (she was getting really good at that now even if it did leave her with a headache that made a hangover look like a walk in the park). She wondered what he had been like, had he been like Edward who had openly admitted that he had no idea children like Renesmee could exist? Had she been a genuine mistake between two people who despite everything had loved each other (like Bella and Edward) or had been like the other vampires she had heard about, the ones who liked the idea of ripping apart human women—who saw them as food and then prized the babies that they carried as the new threat to the supernatural world? And if so where did that leave her? The tragic mishap of two people who did not know better? Or the creation that had murdered a person in an agonising way only to be abandoned by the other person who had created her?

Whenever she thought of that she had to turn her head and bang her head against the pillow hoping that sleep would come. Embry sometimes texted, just little things and Lena had still not figured out if she wanted to text back but she found them whimsical, funny and a little bit sweet.

Carlisle would talk to her and she would listen.

She knew that her genetic make up was a bit different and Carlisle thought it might have been because she had not had the access to human blood like Nessie had had, she had been in the womb drinking human blood and Lena had not. And that made her think about weather or not she had starved her mother to death from the inside out and that made her mind go to some real dark places real fast. Lena had no idea how to cope with her existence, how to cope with the feelings inside of her that were getting steadily more and more darker with each day she learnt something new. Of course she knew that her birth was unpreventable in some ways, human instruments could not have penetrated anything during her birth but she had never once had to think about it in the graphic detail that Carlisle tried to explain to her.

Actually when she came to think about it she knew that Carlisle was probably dumbing down what had happened and that made her feel so much worse. She wanted nothing more to do than to forget what was going on and she wanted to curl under her covers and pretend that she did not know what it meant to cut through someone's stomach with teeth that were made from super strong vampire venom.

After that rather graphic mental image Lena tried to listen to what else he was saying but she found it difficult. She acknowledged that her diet was more human that Nessie's. And perhaps the fact that she had not realised that she was different had given her a great amount of denial, denial was her best friend she thought bitterly one night as she scrapped a brush through her blonde hair and not even bothering with the tangle teaser because she wanted the pain.

The pain distracted her from thinking when she looked at herself in the mirror her skin pale and luminous, her hair blonde and perfect and her eyes dark. She was perfect and deadly even when she didn't feel perfect.

* * *

The day it all went to shit (as Lena had known, _she had known _it would) was the day where she had heard for the first time exactly how Rosalie felt about her.

* * *

It had started out rather simply. She had, had a run in with Elana the head cheerleader who hated anyone who was blonder, skinner and quite frankly more attractive than she was. Lena wondered if head cheerleaders became bitchy when they got the position and while she usually ignored mutters and whispers and conversation between girls who had no idea that other things existed in this world that was dangerous and deadly.

Lena wanted nothing more than to sink her teeth into the soft throat sometimes, it would be so easy, nobody would ever see it coming, Elena certainly wouldn't.

And to make it worse Embry still hadn't fucking texted her.

She trudged home, It had been a sunny day, a rare one and the Cullen's had spent time at home. They didn't go out in the sun because they shined like diamonds blinding anyone in their path, Lena when she had first seen Rosalie had nearly dropped her plate on the tiled floor of the kitchen. Emmett had caught it before she had shattered a piece of china that was the same price no doubt as the first car that some people got for their teenage child.

She had been halfway up the drive when she had picked up on the thoughts of Rosalie who had been in the kitchen doing—whatever it was that Rosalie did. Lena half listened in despite the fact that she was rummaging around for her keys. She liked to let herself into the house, she liked the fact that she had keys, she liked the fact that she was part of a family even if she didn't know where in that family she fit in.

She was half listening in but she stopped listening abruptly. Rosalie and Emmett were both thinking things but Rosalie's thoughts, they seemed to be centred around her and she was thinking it over and over again.

_Daughter. _

This, _this_, on top of everything else was too much. This was far too much.

Lena saw Rosalie's blonde head snap up when she heard her or saw her or whatever it was that vampires did when they realised that they were being watched. Emmett followed her example. For a second the two of them stared at her and Lena stared back and then she did the only thing that she thought she could do in the circumstances.

She ran.

She did not know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that neither Rosalie nor Emmett followed her.

* * *

**Next Chapter-Lena makes a harsh decision that sets of a chain reaction that has deadly and devastating consequences for her, the Cullen's and her future in the family. **

**Hopefully I will be able to publish the next chapter sooner rather than later. **


	15. A Place In This World

**Hi, and here is another chapter, this one is short and I will warn you deals with death by vampire. I have a specific reason for taking Lena on this journey of self-discovery and I hope that you all understand why I had to write this chapter this way. I hope all of you are doing ok, I am working from home so I hope to update sooner rather than later so please keep in tuned for the final twelve chapters of this story. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 15-A Place In This World

Lena makes a rash decision that has a chain reaction that sets some deadly and devastating consequences for her, the Cullen Family and her future within that family. Quite short chapter.

* * *

She ran.

She had never been a good runner. More often than not she had tried desperately to get out of her gym class and curl up in the warmth of the library with a good book. She had never been a runner and in all fairness her boots (high heeled LK Bennett's curtsey of Alice) did not do her any favours.

She had no clothes, no laptop or books and no car keys and she had only her wallet and her debit card on her and she was not sure how good they would be in a crisis. She had no idea what she was going to do or who she was going to call but she knew her heart was splintering with each step that she took and every second that she could not hear someone coming after her.

It confused her beyond measure.

How could she be a daughter to Rosalie…to Emmett and yet they not come after her. How could she be a daughter to anyone? She had never had anyone stand up and say she was a part of their family. And Rosalie had thought it. She had not said it, she had though it and Emmett's inner voice had been full of confusion and worry and it had not been towards her. Nor had she been expecting it. She had not been expecting anything other than a roof over her head and now she was stopping and taking huge gulps of air the snow crunching under her boots she found now she was really examining her feelings she was not a hundred percent confident she would keep a hold of that.

She bent over the edge of a tree and then her knees gave out hitting the frosty grass and she realised where she was. It was the edge of the school parking lot. It had been a weekday, there was very little students around who were not cheerleaders coming out from practice, even the facility was gone, there were three cars, one a grey Audi that she believed might have been left by someone who had been sent home the same day due to illness and had not come back for it, the other two she knew belonged to the two bitches of the school practicing some perfect flip or what not. She watched them come out of the gym and curled her arms around herself watching feeling utterly dead inside.

Polly one of the cheerleaders who had always been giving her a hard time of late and Lizzie her rather sycophantic side kick were coming out of the gym their head tied back in that irritating high pony that cheerleaders always adopted that Lena had never had the time, the skill or the patience to learn because—well it hurt her head keeping her hair that high. She watched them and she knew when Polly caught her eye that it meant nothing but trouble.

"Hey freak…did the posh kids get sick of you?"

Lena snapped.

It was so easy, it was as easy as it was before. In fact it was even more easy than before because she knew was going on, she knew that she had to be in control, she knew that she had be smart and cover up what she was going to do and deep down she knew that it was wrong.

And yet she couldn't help herself.

Because it was just so good.

Perhaps she was always destined to fall.

A fallen Half-Vampire.

It sounded like it was something out of a novel that teenage girls read to themselves dreaming about who or what would make the perfect man. Lena had never been one of those girls who had dreamt about falling in love with the monster and reforming him so that she could get her happy ending.

No.

She was the monster.

She threw Polly against her car door so hard the girl stumbled downwards, Lizzie screamed but Lena had already sunk her teeth into her throat so that it came out a gurgle of blood and panic. In her last moments, her thoughts screaming but yet so easy to block out, her hands scrambled against Lena's hair. It was retribution, a fine way of dealing with the bitches who had made Lena's life hell for so long and a good way of ensuring that she could not go back. See if Rosalie wanted a daughter who could do what she was doing now. Lena did not deserve a happy ending out of all of this, Lena had killed before she had even been born, she was a killer, her father had been a killer, it didn't matter that she lived with people who claimed they were not killers. She had a nature that was hard to forget.

Why bother changing what she was?

She turned blood dripping down her chin, throwing Lizzie's body into the side of her car with a thud and a crash and a shatter from the glass. Polly was watching her, her eyes unfocused. Her mouth mouthed words for a second and then Lena had snapped her spine in two, her legs sagged and she was drinking from her as if she was a blood bag.

She threw the carcases away and then moved to destroy the security cameras around the parking lot. She stopped and smashed them until there was nothing left and then tipped the two bags upside down to see what could be used. Cash yes, a lighter, yes, that would make everything a lot easier. Phones not so much but she threw them in with the cars the bodies and then set the whole thing alight watching the two cars, the two bodies and the two lives of the girls who had bullied for so long go up in smoke from her perch on the hood of a grey Audi.

She didn't feel the same crushing guilt that she had done before. She didn't feel the need to call anyone. Instead she broke into the girls gym rooms and washed the blood off. There was little that she could do with the clothes but she found the gas in the corridor and then when she was ready set the building on fire. It was easier that way she thought, if the school went up along with the cars, easier to explain why the two cars, the two girls burnt beyond repair next to the back door where the fire started. She knew the people in this town, she knew how it worked in the grand scheme of things, she knew how the perfect mayor, with the perfect family and the mistress he saw on weekends would see this—this was a tragic accident that would not effect election year coming up. It was almost perfect in a way a perfect crime. The biggest blow would be the school's chances at the cheerleading nationals this spring. She could almost laugh at that one if the whole concept of emotion meant something to her at this moment in time.

She paused watching her handywork. She imagined a lot of kids would apricate this, the school burning down was like a dream come true for so many. Either way she didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore. She was a vampire, a monster, something that was unfit to be loved.

It was damn time she started acting like it.

Though why did it feel so strange?

She hotwired a car, the grey Audi that she would leave at a conspicuous place and reached for the cash. How much would it take for a fake passport? Actually, who did you go to for that?

She knew if she tried hard enough she could find someone, after all just because this was Vancouver it didn't mean that fake ID's were hard to come by.

* * *

Four hours later as the sky was beginning to turn black and she had a new car and a fake passport in her pocket she finally, finally flipped the switch in her mind over so that she could hear what was going on.

There was a stark silence. Lena leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes against the sickly disappointment that flooded her. She wasn't surprised. She didn't know if she would ever hear from them again.

And then it came.

_"__Lena" _

It wasn't Rosalie, it wasn't Emmett. It was Carlisle.

Lena sighed. Had it been anyone else she would have known what to do, but it was Carlisle who had never killed anyone, who worked as a surgeon overcoming the stench and the smell of blood, who had thought that she was worth something despite the fact that she had now once again put his family at risk.

_"__I fucked up" _

There was a pause.

_"__I take it the school was your idea. For what it's worth you cleaned up for yourself admirably. Of course the gas company might be in trouble. That's two freak accidents in three months, even for a town this small in a city like this it's a lot" _

Lena nodded closing her eyes again to block out the light that was coming from the world.

_"__For what it's worth Carlisle it was never my intention for it to happen. Suppose that's why I've got to go" _

_"__Why? Lena you are not the first member of this family to slip up. Edward did, Jasper for many years, Esme…even Emmett—" _

It was his name that made her mind up. She could never understand why, looking back she could never understand why at this moment it was his name that made her pause but it did.

_"__Don't" _

There was another long pause. Then Carlisle tried again.

_"__Lena please do not feel like you have to leave this family because of any member. We all appreciate mistakes happen, as for Rose and Em…they will respect any boundaries that you want to put in place. Please don't let what you overhear in a conversation—" _his thoughts twisted away suddenly and Lena took a breath, it would be easy, she thought, so easy for her to turn this car around and go home and face the music.

But she was a monster.

_"__I thank you for all that you have done for me Carlisle" _she said oddly formal.

_"__But the reality is monsters don't get happy endings" _

_"__Oh sweetheart. I cannot even begin to tell you how wrong you are" _

_"__Maybe. But…but I have to figure that out" _

There was another long pause. Lena could feel that clear cut rose tinted channel that was Rosalie in her mind sending messages. She tried to block her out but there was a huge amount of gaps in her gift and she had not the time, nor the patience to wonder about what that mean or to try.

_"__I suppose you have that right. But please know Lena that you have a home here. And please let us know if your alright. I wont stand in your way, I have never done that for any of my children, I will not do it now for you. But you have a home and a family here when you are ready" _

And with that he was gone. Lena waited one second and then snapped the channel down blocking anyone who wanted to get into her head. It was a miracle she had made it this far, that she had not been pulled over, she was barely of age with a stolen car and no license nor was she sure she knew what she was doing when it came to the rules of the road. But she had made it this far. This far in this journey, this far in this life. She should not have survived.

But she had. She had survived this long, she had to keep going, away from the Cullen's, away from Embry, away from the demons.

With that she climbed out of the car, shouldered her school bag and walked without a second glance into the airport and to wherever it was that her place in this world would be.

* * *

**I hope that you are all staying safe and that you all enjoy this chapter, hopefully I can update on time. Next chapter will be a short chapter as well. **

**Next Chapter-Lena goes on a travel spree to find herself and ends up getting more confused by the day. Eventually she realises there is one relationship she has to find peace with if she is to ever find her place in the world. This chapter will be entirely Lena's point of view. **


	16. Identity

**Hi, here is another chapter, my note this time is intended to be short and sweet so i hope you enjoy this chapter, enjoy easter if i dont get a chance to post before that and that anyone reading this stays safe and well. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter and the character that is Lena.**

**Please let me know what you think. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 16-Identity

Lena goes on a travel spree to find herself and ends up getting more and more confused by the day. Eventually she realises there is one place and one person she has to see if she is to ever find her place in this world. This chapter might be short and is entirely in Lena's point of view.

* * *

In reality there wasn't much of a plan. All she had with her was her school bag but Lena had ran away before with less. It took her five minutes to buy a ticket for a fight and then before she knew it she was on a plane to England. She had no idea why England but she had chosen on random. She had grabbed what she had needed in duty free and had thrown away the white silk Ralph Lauren blouse that had blood on the sleeves and the hem and had changed into a new shirt. She had grabbed a jacket and phone charger and had then had promptly fallen asleep on the plane. She noted that the passport must be good quality for her to get through two customs checks and then that the Cullen's had not put a block on her credit card.

She had put them in danger, she had hurt them and ran away from them and yet they were still funding this little venture in the knowledge she might never come back.

She was in a hotel when this thought came to her and she vomited up the pretzels, the burger and a good portion of blood into the porcelain sink when this thought sunk in. She lay there shivering with the aftershocks of both the illness and the realisation of what the fact that she was here in another country and had no idea what she was going to do next, she had no idea of who she was or what she was.

The voice in the back of her head that she kept for the truly special occasions where she wanted to hate herself, told her exactly what she wanted to hear at that exact moment in time. The one word that she had been thinking on for longer than she realised, since she had sunk her teeth into the two people who were only doing their best to look after her not knowing what they had let into their house.

Actually the same could be said of the Cullen's, of…but no…she wasn't going to think about that. She wasn't going to think about them right now because she might utterly break down and then who knows the damage she might do in the meantime.

_Monster _her brain supplied to her helpfully, _monster, that's what you are. A monster. _

Lena closed her eyes and inhaled the cheep wood that made up the bathroom cabinets and then finally once she was sure she had feeling back in her legs she forced herself up and fell into the bed that was not as soft as the one she had left the following morning (time difference included) and she slept deeply but found that there was now a nightmare attached to the sleep that came with a blonde, nameless, faceless woman who was strong and silent and deadly and dripping with blood.

When she woke up the next morning it had gone beyond lunchtime, her phone was silent, her mind was silent and the birds were chirping. She staggered out of bed and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Lena came to the conclusion there and then that florescent lighting was really nobody's friend and that yes—she really did feel as sick as she felt. She crawled back into the shower and attempted to make herself look presentable and when hunger forced her outside into the busy streets of London she found that she was able to grab a coffee and something to eat and actually stomach the food. It wasn't blood, but she was able to eat it.

Once the food was in her she found she was pounding the pavement, she got clothes, toiletries, a suitcase, other necessities and she winced as she realised her credit card was still working even the ones that worked overseas. The Cullen's after two days of nothing from her were still trusting her with money and it hurt with every thrust of the card at the damn machine. She picked up a map and then when she was back at the hotel and tucked up in bed feeling tired but not hungry she pinned the map at the wall and then threw a pen at it.

When she woke up she realised she knew where she was going next.

She spent a week in London.

Nobody tried to contact her.

* * *

Her next stop was Paris where she spent four days in a city that was rammed with tourists, it was still the romantic city that Lena had always dreamed about but she realised that it was not the same travelling alone as it was travelling with other people. She saw mothers and daughters shopping or laughing together and she had to look away.

It ached. The nameless, faceless woman who would have been in her twenties now would have if she had survived—give or take Lena's advancing age—and she was not here. There was no doting dad to swing her around in his arms as she saw on the third day she was walking around the city.

She went to sleep in another hotel room and as she stared at the ceiling she thought that she still didn't know who she was or what that meant. She was Lena but the Lena she had known and had clung to and she believed that she was had gone. She had lost herself somewhere between that first cup of blood and finding out that she was a half vampire. She had no idea how to move forwards in this world where there was no set outcome. Even death, the most simplest of things that a person could always see in their future had been taken from hers.

When she thought of this she turned over in her sleep and banged her head against the pillow to banish the thoughts of the blonde haired girl who was dripping with blood in her dreams.

_Monster, _her brain supplied whenever she was thinking good thoughts, _don't forget what you are. You're a monster. _

And still she noticed her phone was silent. Even Embry wasn't calling her.

She felt like throwing her phone against the wall but resisted. After all iPhones were not cheap even if you did seem to still have access to an unlimited credit card.

* * *

She next went to Spain and then when that didn't help she flirted outside Europe to Mexico where she sat upon a white sandy beach in the shade and watched her skin shimmer in the sunlight. It was nothing compared to the miraculous sight that was Rosalie that time she had been caught in the window but Lena supposed it was the one good thing about her since she had found out what she was.

Some people paid to have healthy glowing skin that looked forever moisturized.

She liked Mexico a little. The voice in her head quietened down when she looked in the mirror. She was sleeping better and the heat was so strong sometimes it made her miss the cold of Vancouver, the fact that there was snow starting in November thick on the ground sometimes and the rain lashing against the window.

She didn't even give a thought to the lack of contact that she still not getting. Perhaps Carlisle had told the rest of the family to keep their distance. How he could think to get Rosalie to do that she didn't know.

She realised something else about Mexico as she slung her now battered school bag over her shoulder and walked throughout the town square of the small town she was in seeing the heat and bustle of the city.

It still hurt to think of Rosalie.

That was her first realisation that the more louder and hotter the city was the less her brain thought and when she moved on she went to hotter cities. She spent two memorable weeks in Israel taking in the sights and then a week in the Bahama's where the sea was so clear it was like looking in a mirror. She tried new foods and ate better than she probably had done in her entire life and still she did not find something, anything to fill the hole in her chest.

The whole thing was disconcerting. She was running away from something and yet had nothing to run too. And she was not sure even as a month and then a month and a half went by, if she was welcome back.

Lena saw changes in the mirror to her appearance, the shadows under her eyes were going because she was drinking animal blood whenever she found a wildlife population that she could snack upon. She was eating better, walking all the time and she was sleeping and drinking deep. She could see the pale skin shimmer all the time rather than the dull pale it had been before. Her hair was lighter the sun streaking it. She was changing a little. Not a lot, not a lot for someone doing as much traveling as she was. She was still as pale as moonlight with no hint of a tan but she thought as she stared in the mirror she was seeing some changes. It was a though that brought comfort to her immensely.

She was still in her hotel in the Bahama's looking down at the map when the idea came to her. It had been nearly six weeks since she had disappeared of the face of the earth…so to speak…and she found that as she was looking for the next place to run to that nothing seemed to appeal to her. She lay down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling fan taking in a breath and breathing in the stale air and the heat and smoke coming from the open window.

She was no closer to finding out who she was or where she had come from. The search for her records had took a dead turn because she couldn't access them without going through so much red tape even Lena knew it was likely to be sometime next century before she got to them.

And…and…and if she was being honest with herself she didn't want to know either. Now she could admit it. She didn't want to know about some blonde teenager who had died alone and scared and probably with no clue of what was happening to her. She didn't want to think of the family that might be out their grieving that daughter, granddaughter, that sister and friend.

She didn't want to see them even at a distance. And for all she knew her mother could have been just like her, a kid who had grown up in the system shunted around left to right until a boy who looked just like Edward or Jasper or Emmett, impossibly charming and beautiful in the extreme came along and turned her whole world upside down.

* * *

Eventually she decided on Australia, she only spent three days there, she decided she liked her beaches empty even if the lifeguards were hot. She acknowledged that none of them were Embry. She found his silence perhaps the worst of all. Still she couldn't think of Rosalie without wanting to smash something or cry. Or get blackout drunk or kill thirty people.

Or do all of those things.

She went back to her old roadmap and paused.

Mexico. Mexico was where she had felt most at ease. Mexico was where she was going to go back to.

She caught the next flight out.

* * *

Lena had taken to walking amongst the secluded beaches at night watching the big creamy moon reflect on the water. She was wearing a pair of sky blue shorts and an white t-shirt and she carried her shoes in her hand. She was aware she was being watched and she turned her head a little bit to the side to see out of the corner of her eye with her vision which was better than the average fighter pilot that she was being eyed up by a group of boys possibly between the ages of sixteen and fifteen. She smiled at them and in the way of teenage boys they dissolved into giggles and flirtatious looks. Lena left them to it.

She had never really had patience that came with the average teenager.

She was not your average teenager after all.

And she knew none of them were Embry, the fact that she was now openly acknowledging that he was something on her mind constant as the moon that was reflected in the silent dark water. She carried on walking and waiting in the dense undergrowth listening. The now, two month absence from the Cullen's had sharpened her instinct and she waiting until she was sure the animal that she could see the rough outline off was alone and then she leapt as gracefully as she could towards it not making a sound until she had finished her food. Lena supposed she was getting good at this. She was wearing a white t-shirt and only a little bit at the hem was splattered. Not nearly enough to cause alarm to anyone passing her by.

She turned and walked back along the now deserted coastline.

It was past two in the morning before she had made up her mind. There was one person she had to see, one person where she had to know if what she was…if what she had done was the end. If she knew that…then she knew what would probably be expected of her if she ever went back to Vancouver.

She led herself into the room and went to the bathroom flipping on the light and staring at herself in the mirror. She took a deep breath gritting her teeth and gripping the porcelain white of the sink and then for the first time in nearly two months she opened the mental channel that was her mind.

It took her ten minutes to get where she wanted, it had been a long time since she had used her gift and she had gotten used to the silence.

But she knew who she wanted to speak to right now.

She knew who she wanted right now.

Embry.

Embry.

"Embry" she said out loud staring at herself in the mirror.

There was silence.

_"__Embry?" _

And then into the silence there was warmth spreading through her mind. If it had colours or smells Lena would think of warm brown and deep green. The colour of the forest where he had grown up and where he had said one day she was more than welcome to come and see. The smell of him, the warmth that radiated form him. The musky smell of teenage boy mixed with coconut and sea salt and something that reminded her of an aftershave that she couldn't put a name too. Dog hair even. It was him. He was invading her senses along with her invading his mind. That had never happened before. But maybe she was reading too much into this, after all it wasn't like there were many werewolf/half vampire relationships in which to compare too.

Lena stared without seeing in the mirror as she waited. It seemed as if the whole world was waiting on this moment. And then without warning, much like he had done when he had appeared in her life she heard it. It was a combination of surprise and sleep and panic and then something else she couldn't…no she didn't want to name.

It was almost (not quite, not really) like coming home.

_"__Lena!?" _

* * *

**And yeah, she avoided Italy for a very specific reason. (wink,wink)**

**And i hope you enjoy this chapter i will endevour to udpate sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-Rosalie and Emmett attempt to adjust to the absence of Lena in their lives and the Cullens get both news and a rahter large credit card bill-next chapter is entirly the Cullens pov. **


	17. Lone Star

**Hi, so here is another chapter, there are now less than ten chapters of this story left so we are slowly starting to come towards a conclusion. I wish all of you reading nothing but happiness, safety and with you all well. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this character that is Lena. **

**Please Read and Review.**

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 17-Lone Star

Rosalie and Emmett attempt to adjust to the absence that Lena has left in their lives and the Cullen's get both news and a rather large credit card bill that informs them just what their newest member seems to be doing. This chapter is entirely just the Cullen's Point of View. Specifically Emmett's Point of View and might as always be a bit short.

* * *

The only thing, Emmett was sure kept his wife going in the weeks that slowly became months was that the last time this had happened they had come home. The time before that Edward had come home, as had Alice and Jasper. Indeed most days when his thoughts had gone to the blonde whirlwind that had interrupted his happy existence (the second one he would think with a wry kind of amusement) he had been forced to remember that leaving this family did not mean that you were never coming back to it. Indeed there had not been a memory where he had seen a member of the family leave and not come back and he would refuse to believe that there was going to be a first.

Lena he told himself sternly was not going to be the first.

And in truth he could understand, how could he not? When he too had attacked people simply because they smelt too good? Everyone had been guilty of the same crime once upon a time unless you were Carlisle or Rosalie or Bella—Bella had, had months to develop her self control, to get herself mentally around how she would feed for the rest of her existence and Carlisle had always been better than anyone surrounding him though Esme came close second. And as for Rosalie…

Well…Emmett had always known he was not fit to walk in the dust that she stirred up in her high heels. He had considered it the moment he had laid eyes upon her in the image he saved—the last image of his human life. The image of the angel that had saved him. That had for some reason designed to love him regardless of how unworthy he was.

Lena as it turned out was no better than the rest of them. She made mistakes. It was part of living a long and immortal life. Emmett could understand the actions behind what she had done completely. Had he too not heard information and reacted, and he had done it more than once to boot.

He found it changed nothing.

Because in that long month, certainly in the first three weeks (before the credit card bill had come in) he had found himself worried out of his mind about what the girl—his girl—was doing. He knew she had overheard the conversation which he and Rosalie had talked and more importantly thought about Lena and the role that she was to play within their lives. The role that they had wanted to ask her to play. They had wanted to assume responsibility in the way that Carlisle and Esme had done for each of them. Why should they not? Emmett might be weary of it (for this very reason) but even he could not deny the bond that existed between his wife and the girl he had rapidly become to consider daughter in the months that she had been staying with them. He could also not deny the flare within in him of pure joy at being considered someone's father.

He had known when he had met, changed and fallen head over heels for Rosalie that the concept of children were out of the question. He had never considered the idea of created a vampire either. Emmett had no regrets of this life but he knew that others did Rosalie included. He was not sure if he could willingly condemn someone to this life who had a human one ahead of them—after all medicine had changed many things in this life and he also knew that his self control was not at the strongest point where he could stop.

And yet…the dormant part of him that had never considered fatherhood to be an actual thing had changed when the blonde bomb that had been Lena had crashed into his orbit.

And he was not sure what he was going to do with her absence.

He was not the kind of man to sit patiently at home and wait for a teenager to come back.

* * *

There had been several heated debates over weather or not they would stay in Vancouver post Lena's…well…murder of two high school students. A combination of Lena's brutal efficiency when it came to her cover up and the fact that she had set half of the school on fire in the process had managed to convince most of the people that the accident that had claimed the lives of two of the most popular—and evil, depending on your view of the average high schooler—cheerleaders. Edward had looked over any camera footage Lena hadn't destroyed and it looked like they were safe for now.

They had, had another row over what that meant. Jasper and Alice to some extent were all in favour of leaving. Edward came down on whatever side of the argument that kept Bella and Nessie safe. Jacob tended to agree but did not voice much to the conversation other than to comment on how the kid had not been in touch with Embry and he would let them know if she was. Esme had been a fan of staying and Rose who had come out of the safe haven that had been their room had sat with her blonde hair tied in a loose ponytail behind her back had said nothing only that when Lena came home she would want her old room exactly the way it was.

Jasper who might be tactile at best was not heartless in the emotional sense and he carefully didn't say what was in his mind. Instead he had caught Carlisle's eye and had sighed going off for a hunt. That had been the end of the conversation for another two weeks in which they attempted to get back to normal—Lena's excursion's meaning that there was no school for the foreseeable future.

And then the credit card bill came in. It was as Edward had pointed out when compassion to his sister became too great, the only way of tracking Lena and therefore they had not cancelled it. There seemed to be a lot of plane trips. Whatever Lena was doing or whatever it was that she was attempting to do she was not bothering to hide how much she was spending or where she was going. There seemed to be many countries she wanted to travel and there were different times in which she was remaining in each one. In fact there wasn't even a pattern to that. She was jumping all over the place. Sometimes she was in Europe and then she was outside of Europe and then she was back in Mexico for the second time. It was getting more and more unpredictable to track. It was almost as if she was searching for something though there was no way he could tell. She had slammed down that mental block down on her gift within seconds of her teeth cutting through some innocent kids throat.

‟It's a bloody expensive breakdown were paying for" Jasper said leaning over Carlisle's shoulder and reading the credit card statement. ‟I don't remember anyone else racking up a bill that huge when they were out trying to find themselves"

Emmett very carefully threw him out the door. It was easier than it looked as he had quite a few pounds on Jasper despite the fact that he had been doing this for a living, and he didn't damage any of the skirting boards which he liked to think was a plus.

Funnily enough neither Carlisle, Esme and Alice took that same opinion. Neither did Jasper when he came back into the house with the look of someone who had been thrown unceremoniously into a hedge or a cluster of trees without warning. Emmett couldn't have cared less.

It got a reaction out of Rosalie for the first time in days. She had smiled at him and Emmett had found he would have thrown Jasper and anyone else for that matter through any number of doorways as long as it got Rosalie to look at him that way.

* * *

‟Do you think she will come back?" Rosalie said into the silence one night as the stars around them grew bigger and shone brighter. Emmett paused as he thought about it.

‟Yes I do" he said finally into the darkness. ‟She's flawed just like us all and she's ashamed of what she's done, I can understand that, I've been in those shoes. Hell I've walked miles and miles in those shoes. I understand what's going through her head right now. She's angry she couldn't control herself, she's hurt and she's confused about finding a place within a family she's never had before. And she's ashamed she couldn't control herself as well"

There was a delicate pause where Emmett tried not the mention nor to think of his wife's family. Her human family. Nothing good ever came of thinking of Rosalie's human family, certainly nothing good ever came of speaking about them.

They had been born and raised within the same time and place within history and yet had, had very different backgrounds. Emmett had had to scrape by his living and had grown up poor and on more than one occasion gone through winter without a coat and summer without a pair of shoes, but he had, had his parents love to guide him and to support him when there was nothing else. Rosalie had not had that, she'd had everything materially and yet nothing maternally and she had struggled to accept Esme's natural maternal instinct because she had never had anything like that before in her life.

And now here she was struggling to comprehend what had happened and what could have been done differently and yet still not finding any sort of answer that could help his peace of mind never mind the woman he loved more than eternity itself. So he had to settle on hope.

Hope was not something that he did well. Emmett had never been one to hope for anything. Even when they had, had the Volturi breathing down their necks he had always been the one who had believed that the fight would come to a head rather than believe that truth and reasoning would stop the inevitable. He was not one for a gentle conversation or for holding out hope that something good might happen for once. He was not sure how to tell Rosalie the one thing she wanted to hear and to make it so she believed it even when he did not believe it himself.

He trusted Lena, deep down he believed she would come back to the them even if it was for a passing visit. But become a part of their family? Become the child that Rosalie and he could have had? The girl with the blonde hair and the dimples and the smile that if he was being totally gut wrenchingly honest with himself he had thought about and buried somewhere in the 1940s and then again when Bella had come back from her honeymoon pregnant?

Emmett was unsure, he was unsure about weather or not he could look Rosalie in the eye and give her a time frame on something like that. Instead he held her closer burying his face into the blonde curls that despite the many attempts to change it still smelt of lilacs and roses.

"Whatever happens Rose" he said finally into the silence as he acknowledged that Lena was heading back to the States (and that had to be a good sign didn't it?). "Then I've got your back. Whatever it is then we will face it together and I will make us perfect again"

Rosalie didn't comment on the ring of the utterly empty promise nor did she comment on anything else that he had said. Instead she gripped his hand tighter as Emmett pressed himself closer to her and they both stayed like that for a long time neither one of them commenting out loud what it was that the blonde haired dimpled, half vampire who had in such a short time became such an integral part of their lives was doing at this very moment and if she was thinking about them as much as they were thinking about her.

* * *

**And there you are i hope you all enjoyed this. Next chapter we will be back to Lena's point of view and probably the next couple of chapters will be in her perspective. This one in Emmett's was a fun branch out for me so i hope you liked it. **

**I will try and update as soon as i can. **

**Next Chapter-Lena goes to face another ghost in her past and sees the werewolves in their natural world and tries to figure out who she is and where her future is at. **


	18. Embry

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I really like this one and i hope you do too. There are a seven more chapters left of this story and so i hope you enjoy this chapter. The note with this one is as with most of the others short and sweet so...**

**Disclaimer-Nothing in this chapter other than Lena is mine. **

**And let me know what you think, please read and review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 18-Embry

Lena goes to face another ghost in her past and sees the werewolves in their natural world and once again finds that she has to find herself and where her future is at.

* * *

Lena got of the plane pretending to be a lot more confident than she actually was. The flight from Mexico to the state of Seattle, from Seattle to the connecting town and then the promise of a ride in a car with Embry was not doing much for her confidence, neither was sitting in a confined space for hours upon hours with people whose blood was throbbing beneath their pulse damp with sweat.

And then there was what was waiting for her on the ground.

Her mental conversation with Embry had been silted. He had tried to talk to her, had told her (in between mutterings about how strange this was and how he had no idea he was doing it right) that Jacob had told him what was going on and that it was better for her to work through it all on her own. Lena thought that that was Jacob's way of saying to stay out of it until she had worked through her shit least Embry send her on another killing spree and she was rewarded with a slow deep chuckle through her mind that made her feel warm as if she had sunk into a hot bath.

It had been easy for him to convince her to come and stay for a while. And if she was being honest with herself she was kinda curious to see how he and his pack brothers lived. What they would make of her and her actions was another story but she thought that she had lived through too much to be surprised now. And she was still who she was deep down—and Lena knew that despite anything and everything she had been through she was still unable to keep her mouth shut when it came to someone throwing insults at her.

How that would go down in a tiny town where Embry lived was again something that was making her too fast heart, beat just a little faster in her chest.

Also she was still not accustomed to flying, nor to the long ques of border checks or the increased scrutiny of her illegally obtained passport. Either way she was tired and in need of a dire shower when she eventually worked her way through the airport (and for a small airport it was busy) and saw Embry leaning against the car bonnet of a rather handsome silver car that she was willing to bet the little change she had in her pocket was so not his own.

She hid a little in the shadows wondering how it would look if she simply ducked back to the airport toilets and attempted to make a change to her appearance, she was very aware she'd only had a little time between flights and she was sure that her clothes and hair were a mess, her eyes had huge bags under them and she was achingly aware that the last time he had seen her face to face she had looked a damn sight well…more vampire than the human mess. Suddenly she felt the urge to blink back tears as she thought about it.

Lena took a deep breath and wiped the sleeve of her black denim jacket over her eyes trying to rid herself of the tears that were gathering. She had never been a weepy, sentimental kind of girl and she was not going to start now. Instead she held her head high and stepped out into the weak sunlight of the little airport of Port Angeles. Embry caught sight of her and his smile seemed to light up the whole space between them. Lena felt that sudden surge of warmth through her when she saw it and didn't for the first time since she had murdered two of her classmates feel alone and scared. If Embry wasn't looking at her like she was a monster, then that had to mean something didn't it?

They came face to face with each other and he made no mood to touch her despite the fact that his smile was still so warm and sunshiny. He was letting her make a choice she realised and an affection she had never felt before threatened to overwhelm her.

For the first time in however long her life had been she felt the age she looked like. She felt fifteen, a stupid, silly little fifteen year old girl. All she wanted to do was—_ 'hug'. _

Embry's smile seemed to deepen somewhat showing more of his dimples than she had seen before. He opened his arms and Lena slid into them suddenly aware that she was shaking with supressed emotion. He wrapped both of his strong arms around her and she pressed her face into his t-shirt breathing in the smell of him, that wet dog smell she always smelled and the musky scent of something he was wearing to cover it up. There was a smell of coconut underneath that and she could almost detect sea spray or sea salt or something to do with the sea underneath that as if this morning or the night before or even the day before Embry had been in the ocean.

She closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of him using it to ground herself for several minutes until she found that she was calm and she pulled back running her thumb underneath her eyes. She thought that she was doing rather well—the shaking and the trembling and the tears that had burned her eyelids had not become full blown sobs and that had to be something and Embry was still looking at her with that small soft smile that did not tell her he was desperate to run a mile away from her when he first got the chance. That Lena knew meant more to her in this moment than fucking diamonds.

"Hey" he said into her hair as she felt his chin rest on top of her head. "Hey it's ok"

"Not ok" Lena said finally even as he opened the door to the car and she slid in. She found that she missed the warmth that came when he held her and even when he entered and the heat that was radiating off him was as such that she found she was relaxing even when he was sitting feet apart from her. She thought for the briefest of seconds about the way that Nessie and Jacob were and how close they were and she thought despite the many reasons against this imprinting shit she could for the first time see the pros to it.

The drive was mostly silent. Lena could feel both the physical and the mental exhaustion pulling at her but she made an effort even as the town of Forks—the centrepiece of the story that was Edward and Bella flashed past them in greens and browns.

"So where were you when you…I don't know? Called?" Embry asked finally.

"Mexico" Lena said shortly. "Second time there actually, I went all over. But Mexico was so hot and the sand so pure and the sea so blue that it just kinda made the noise in my head go away. Plus the game was interesting, learnt how to hunt properly there. Still shouldn't hunt wearing white but at least I don't look like Carrie's stunt double now" she thought back to how she had looked in the beginning and bit her lip against the smile.

Embry however, Embry threw back his head and laughed.

Lena found that for the first time in days or perhaps it was weeks she felt like laughing as well.

Embry's mom was out of town on a trip to see her parents in a nearby tribe. Lena took a deep breath when she heard that, she had not been prepared to spend time in the house alone with him but Embry rolled his eyes when he saw her expression.

"Jacob asked his Dad if he would mind putting you up. Well actually Carlisle did but it came through Jacob"

"They know that I'm here?" Lena asked finally. Embry didn't need to ask who she was referring to—and Lena liked to think enough to know that she wasn't just referring to Carlisle.

"Yeah…I told Jacob you reached out, I assume he told them, or more than likely Edward overheard it. They didn't say—" he stopped abruptly perhaps seeing the look on her face. Lena got the gist of it nonetheless she didn't want to think about Rosalie or Emmett or the pain that she had caused them, right now, perhaps most of all she didn't want to think about the fact that they were still giving her space she had made clear she wanted and the fact that it made her feel more alone than ever.

Embry pulled up in front of a red wooden house with a garage at the back, there was very little road and there was a ramp rather than stairs, it was within walking distance of the forest and it looked like some photo of a house that you would see as your computer screen taken by a professional photographer. It had a charm to it and a ruggedness and yet there was something about it that told Lena no matter how charming it looked this house had stood through a lot and would keep standing to the end of the earth.

And then she saw the man in the wheelchair that she knew without asking must have been Jacob's father. With her enhanced sight she could see the resemblance.

"Are you sure he's ok with putting up a half vampire who just killed two people?"

Embry snorted. "Lena, at this point he's seen and done so much I doubt you'd be breaking him out into a sweat"

And with that he opened the car door leaving Lena with no choice but to grab her bag, grip her courage and follow him into the unknown.

* * *

Surprisingly enough living with someone like Billy Black was a lot easier than Lena had anticipated considering the man hated vampires and she was essentially half of that. His fridge was well stocked though he didn't seem to know how to cook well and he had a wonderful knack of knowing when Lena wanted conversation and when she didn't. He also encouraged her to go outside more into the woods and when they were together he asked for information about fishing up in Canada not that Lena knew much of that.

Either way they managed together quite well.

The other werewolves were slightly different.

Some were fine with her.

Seth, Colin and Brady who were younger than her, three even younger boys who shot her glances whenever she was in the line of sight that she knew were more flattering than anything else. Some of the other 'Imprints' were nice as well. Claire one who could have been maybe four seemed to really like her and spent half an hour around Billy's table telling her about her new stuffed elephant, when Lena had commented that while she might not have seen elephants she had seen all sorts of other wildlife in Mexico and that had passed a rather fun hour or too. Emily who seemed to be with Sam who as far as she understood pack politics—and she didn't understand much—was the leader of something was polite too if not a little cautious. Lena didn't mind, if she was being honest she was the same.

This world she was in was forever changing, sometimes it was hard to keep the ground beneath her from shifting. It was almost comforting to know that others were out there whose lives had been perfectly normal until a freak coincidence had them meeting their—well whatever the werewolves were.

Somehow she had never seen the vampire life like that even though she had known it to be true.

Emily who had come over with Claire was nice though Lena sometimes found she had to pinch herself to stop staring at the face that had been ravaged by the man who claimed to love her. Lena had heard the story from Billy one night when she had bribed him with Tequila she had taken from Mexico and steak, rosemary and cheese potatoes and a mushroom sauce that she had rustled up out of nowhere. She had learnt about Leah and Emily and Sam and the pain that the imprinting had caused three people who had one day thought the world was something and in the blink of an eye found themselves on rocky foundations.

The others were…interesting.

Some of the other wolves, Paul and Jared in particular regarded her with overt suspicion and on more than one occasion made pointed comments about the smell being downwind. They had been at another campfire when Paul had turned to look at Lena and had said looking her dead in the eye so that she knew it was for her.

"Ah so the little murderer is here?"

Embry had leapt at him and transformed. Mid air he had become wolf.

It was the second time Lena had seen him do it and it was still bizarre, but she found she was terrified of him or for him. In fact as odd as that sounded she felt rather touched that he had sprung to her defence.

"Is it…always like this?" she asked finally as Emily passed her a mug of coffee. The heat warmed her hands and she tried to pretend that it was cold that was making her shiver and not the fact that Sam had joined the two wolves who were desperately tearing strips out of each other.

"Most of the time" Emily said with a soft smile as if she thought that the sight of two huge wolves the size of cars snarling at each other was something to be indulged. "But they wont hurt each other, Paul's just…well he's Paul…he's not been what you would call trusting when it comes to vampires, and his imprint is Jacob's sister and there are having what you might call problems. So all in all he's not in the best mood"

Lena nodded hearing it but not really processing it until ten minutes later when Embry stalked out of the forest with leaves and twigs in his hair and a pair of borrowed shorts slung around his waist.

"Sorry" he said finally. "Paul's an asshole. Ignore him, I do"

Lena nodded and she settled down to eat picking at her plate. Nobody asked her how she was satisfying the other side of her and she didn't volunteer an answer. She had survived long enough on human food, she could keep the burn to a minimum.

* * *

The night ended when they broke up and Lena walked with Embry down to the beach watching the waves in the dusky twilight roll in across the beaches and the stars in the sky twinkle. Life here was so different from what she was used too.

"I do feel bad about it you know" she said finally her hands in her pocket. "Killing them. And leaving. It's just…Sometimes I think that every time I get the ground beneath me steady then something comes along and it all goes to complete and utter shit. That day…I overheard a conversation between Emmett and Rosalie in which they both said they considered me to be their daughter. Nobody's ever…thought of me in that way. And it was unexpected"

Embry was silent for a long time and then he quirked an eyebrow at her. "Permission to speak freely?"

Lena raised an eyebrow, she didn't think that there was ever a time when Embry had not spoken freely but then again she had heard about that Alpha rule thing—seemed as dodgy as hell in her opinion and thankfully she had not been offered a chance to speak about it.

"I mean, how blondie and the giant thought about you…that was rather obvious wasn't it? I mean she attacked me when I imprinted on you? Had Carlisle not turned up when he did then I might have lost a big chunk of flesh, and she…I dunno…she seems to do all the Mom things, she gets you food and blood and takes you shopping, she designed your room and she spends time with you. Her face lights up when your in the room and…and look I don't know half of what made blondie, blondie but I do know that she's wanted to be a mother for a long time. Hell she nearly went to war over Bella's pregnancy. And…as much as I hate to admit it the one thing about the Cullen's is that they seem to create family out of nothing, all of those vampires had mothers and fathers before they became vampires. Doesn't stop them from loving the Doc and his wife in the same way"

Lena stared, despite everything she had never thought about it that way. She swallowed down the emotion that had rose in her throat rapidly. She had never been the sentimental type but she had never felt more like crying because as simply as it had been put it had been true. And she had left them.

"Fuck I am such a bitch" she said finally. Embry laughed.

"Nah, you're not. You're a kid and you've made mistakes, as have we all. If blondie and giant are half as good as they were around you there'll get it. Besides with the exception of the Doc and the exception of Bella, maybe, nobody in that family is perfect—they all got blood on their hands—you should hear the blonde emotion maker's story about life in the South." He gave a mock shudder and Lena giggled a little looking back out towards the sea.

"Besides" Embry said following her gaze, "If it doesn't work out…then come down here and be with me. I think I could do well in Mexico if you wanted"

Lena turned to look at him and then realised that he was being deadly serious. She didn't know what or even how to respond to that so instead she turned away looking back over the ocean.

"It's stunning here" she said finally and Embry who must be half saint didn't say anything. Instead he nodded. Lena took a deep breath and turned back to him.

"Small steps" she said finally. Embry didn't say anything not that she could blame him, she thought that it was a bit of a random comment even for her. So she elaborated.

"I don't know what I want Embry, not really but I do know I like it here with you. And…and I'm not sure if I want a relationship yet…I mean I wouldn't even know how to do it but…but I really want to hold your hand, because you make me feel warm and safe and…and now I'm rambling fan-fucking-tastic…" she said feeling impossibly stupid and so like some sort of teenage girl she would route to get her throat cut out in the movies.

Embry moved forwards before she could speak and cupped her face with one hand, it effectively silenced her but just as she thought (and potentially hoped) he did not kiss her. Instead he reached out and took her hand into his other hand and held it for a moment.

"Small steps are good" he said finally. "And there is no rush for more. And you can hold my hand anytime"

Lena nodded and they carried on walking down the beach their hands intertwined.

If felt good.

* * *

**And there you are, hope that's ok and let me know what you think of this chapter, i will endevour to update as soon as i can and as always i wish you all reading this good health. **

**Next Chapter-A surprisingly new point of view as Lena continues her stay in La Push and tries to deal with the consequences of her choices and her actions. Potentially shorter chapter than this one. **


	19. Oh The Guilt

**Hi, so here is another chapter. I hope you all enjoy it, and there are six more chapters of this story left so please was a new and fun point of view for me and very fun to get into which is great for future chapters. I think the next chapter will be last one in La Push and then the Cullens will return as we wind this story down to it's conclusion. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**And did anyone else have a flashback to their thriteen year old self in school uniform jumping up and down when we got the news that Midnight Sun was to be relesaed? Because i sure did! **

**And as always stay safe and well. **

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There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 19-Oh The Guilt.

A surprisingly new point of view as Lena continues her stay in La Push and tries to deal with the consequences of her choices and her actions. Potentially/Probable shorter chapter than the previous one.

* * *

Sometimes when she closed her eyes and laid back on the grass that made up the back of Jacob's barn she looked dead.

It was hardly the most inspiring thought a werewolf had ever had about their imprint but when Embry looked at Lena, her golden hair spread out like a blanket of gold around her, her face tilted up to catch the weak rays of sunlight and her eyes closed she looked dead to the world around her. Like something etched in stone, a statue created out of marble and Embry sometimes had to ball his hands into fists and feel the short nails digging grooves that would always heal within milliseconds, resisting the urge to reach out and just graze his fingers alongside the edge of _perfection. _

One blue eye opened. "I can hear you , you know. Waxing poetic even if you are seeing things"

Embry smiled leaning back against the grass and grabbing handfuls of the fresh earth underneath this hands. He was leaning In the sun, his shirt discarded somewhere between the garage and Lena's bag (she had been attempting to work on something online and her laptop now powered down lay near her bag neatly closed as well). Lena's head was resting against his leg and she was staring up at the sky now for once in the small but rainy state of Washington was a clear blue without a hint of grey cloud.

That first week where she had said she wanted to hold hands had morphed slowly into two weeks and now they were at the beginning of week three. It was a time that Embry had never lived through, a summer of peace and promise where things seemed to ebb and flow with the tide and not slam into them full thrust like it had done for the last year or so since he had transformed.

Hand holding had gone to this moment of domestic peace and while Embry was content with what they had and more than content to let Lena continue to move things at her own pace he was also anxious that this would end prematurely. She had not discussed going back to the Cullen's but he knew that it was on her mind because he was beginning to know her, know everything about her in a way that he had never known anyone before.

Embry could understand now what it was that made Emily forgive Sam and Sam hate himself forever. He could understand how Jared still hated himself for ignoring and on some occasions tormenting Kim before he imprinted. He could understand Quill and his devotion to Claire so much so he was prepared to live like a monk for the foreseeable future. He could understand the pain Jacob put himself through over Bella Swan when she had been pregnant and there had been something unknowable dragging him towards her time and time again and he found that he could even understand how insufferable Paul was whenever he came up against the brick wall that was Rachel and her constant pulling away over some kind of misunderstanding in their past. He had never really understood the power of imprinting and yet now he had this amazing half-vampire here he was seriously questioning how he had ever managed one day without her.

Yeah it was going to hurt like a bitch when she left, if she left…Embry never mentioned the subject or even thought much about it in her presence, he didn't want to spur her into a decision she was not wholly comfortable. Either way it could go bad for him.

In a moment of complete and utter lunacy somewhere during week two of this self-imposed exile he had thought about ringing Jacob and telling him that he was going to Mexico or to Israel or to New Zealand or wherever the hell Lena wanted to go. That thought had gone south the moment he had thought about it. The truth was he could no sooner leave La Push or leave the pack or leave his mother as soon as he could walk on water.

His mother was a problem that Embry did not want to think about. She no longer thought that he was still running wild—Sam, desperation and the knowledge that when the Volturi came along this might be it for them, had forced him to tell her the big secret but the awkwardness was there between them, they had never really been close and the knowledge that he was biologically related to one of his pack brothers—two who had grown up thinking that their fathers had very happy marriages—had not helped matters. He did not know what she would make of Lena or what Lena would make of her and he was not really looking forwards to asking or finding out.

Right now this time was better spent between him and his imprint.

Lena forced herself up off the ground and span around to stare at him.

"You are really not good at hiding your thoughts" she said with a small grin. Embry grinned back.

"Suppose that makes our future together easier" he said. He meant it as a joke, as some jovial kind of humour but the smile faded somewhat of that face he had grown accustomed to seeing each day. He could have kicked himself.

"Don't look at me like that" Lena said her tone taking back some of it's briskness and her eyes flashing in a way that had Embry want to drown within them (God when did he become as soppy as Sam and Jared—it was humiliating). "I've gotten my brain around this imprinting thing it's just…" she shook her head and Embry had to force down the frustration that was building.

There were times, many of them in fact when it always felt like it was one step forwards, two steps back when it came to Lena. They were just getting along and things were just getting to the point where he felt like he could ask her the questions he was burning to ask her and then she pulled back and retreated further away into the that brilliant, all-encompassing and quite frankly scary mind of hers.

"What is it then?" he asked finally trying to keep his tone gentle and trustworthy when all he wanted to do was to lay down the world at her feet and beg her to take him.

Oh God he _was_ turning into a romantic sap!

"It's just…sometimes I feel like I don't deserve a future. It's not the fact that I killed those girls in Canada. I regret that but I don't hate myself for it anymore it's just sometimes I wonder if I've just been killing people since I was born. I mean…it's not that I want to find out about my mother it's just sometimes I think that she was probably just a naïve kid that fell in love with a vampire and I don't want to delude myself into thinking their relationship was anything like Edward and Bella's despite how good it would make me feel"

Embry thought about it.

"I suppose I can see why you would think that" he admitted grudgingly "But I don't agree with it. You shouldn't have to pay the price for your parents. Though God knows I seem to be doing it" he added as a slightly bitter after thought. He paused feeling younger than he was and certainly younger than what he had been through. Lena tilted her head and looked at him and Embry decided that if she was airing her dirty laundry, her fears and the way she felt then he may as well do the same.

"My mother is from another tribe" he said finally. "The gene that makes us all werewolves is from this tribe, it's based in La Push history and one day you'll get to hear the legends" he paused and hoped against hope that Billy when he did get to talking hadn't mentioned the 'Cold Ones' and the woman who had ripped the throat out of the local girls who had gone to bathe by the stream one ordinary morning and had not come home.

"My mother moved down to La Push after she graduated High School to work before she went to college. She fell pregnant, I've never known my father and she's never mentioned him. But the gene is passed through father to son or daughter in Leah's case. The prime candidates for my father are Joshua Uley, Sam's father, Quills father, Quill IV or Billy. And all three were married at the time"

Lena stared at him wide eyed and the gave a low whistle. "Wow" she said popping the W.

"Have you ever asked her?"

"She won't say"

"And them?"

"Sam's dad is well in the wind, Quill's dad is…complicated…I mean his grandfather is more the father figure and Billy…well…Jacob won't ask him, won't even consider asking him and I'm not sure if I want to either. I think everyone is hoping my Dad is Sam's dad. It's a hell of a lot easier if he is"

Lena considered him for a moment.

"Did it…I mean when you put the pieces together…when you all put the pieces together did you and Jacob and Quill. Did you talk about it? I mean your best friends before and after, did they not wonder"

"Jacob doesn't think about it, at least not in my hearing. Quill thinks about it sometimes but only in the sense that he's an only child and it would be nice to have a brother, Sam doesn't think about his father at all. Can't do it without transforming even now"

"Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know. I…" and here was the difficult part but he wanted her to know. He felt like she had to know, she was his imprint, he trusted her beyond anyone and anything in his life.

"I would like it to be Billy" he confessed. "I know that everyone wants it to be Joshua Uley but if I could choose a dad I'd choose Billy Black in a heartbeat. He was just…there…for me when I was growing up. Didn't care if I was breaking into Jacob's room at one in the morning or if I was coming round for dinner, and Jake—I'd walk through hell and back for Jake—actually have done so many, many times. When Bella was pregnant and Jake went to defend her I would have followed but Sam kept me on a tight leash. Twice he sent Quill round I swear not to spend nights with me but to stop me leaving. Paul and Jared just used to look at me strangely whenever I entered the room or just downright suspicious. Even Emily couldn't look me in the eye. I wasn't like the rest, Jared, Paul, Quill, they all had imprints, Colin and Brady were so young they didn't understand what was happening. I was the loose cannon and I knew they all knew it. Trust me it wasn't difficult changing allegiances after that."

He paused taking huge gulps of air. He was a little shocked if he was being honest with himself about how truthful he had been with her. He had not expected all of those feelings he had been desperate to hide to come out in this way. But the bitterness he had buried for so long was finally there and he wanted to tell Lena about it, he wanted someone on his side for the first time in a long time and he wanted her to tell him it was alright for him to feel this way about his brothers.

"Still think you're the one with the screwed up, full of guilt future ahead of them" he added feeling raw and exposed.

Lena said nothing for a minute or two and that time seemed to stretch onwards before she moved. Before Embry could do anything, before he could even so much as blink she had kissed him on the cheek.

He watched as she sat back on her hands grinning, his cheeks were burning red and the place where her lips had touched him were almost vibrating.

"Thank you for sharing that with me" she said finally. "It's beyond words, and for what it's worth, I don't think your screw up or full of guilt or too messed up for a future. I think your kinda perfect"

Embry stared at her. Nobody had ever called him perfect before. Not even his own mother. And yet here was creations most perfect and perhaps most dangerous creation her legs crossed, wearing leggings and a faded Demin shirt. He swallowed feeling so me sort of emotion he did not want to name rise up within him.

Never again would he ever mock any of the wolves in either pack about imprinting. Never again would he make light of it or think of it as anything other than the sheer joy that it was. He had never known it was like this, like always having someone in your corner prepared to fight for you. Even if he never got beyond that, it was beyond comforting to know that it was there.

He wanted it beyond words.

He leaned back against the old wood of Billy's barn where Jacob had once helped Bella Swan repair motorcycles and helped repair her broken heart and Lena curled up next to him his arms wrapped around her waist and as he dropped a kiss in her hair and felt her relax against him he knew that somehow despite their lack of words they had both let go of their guilt of being alive, of being the cause of so much pain and destruction, and were looking forwards to a future together.

* * *

**And there you are. I will endeavour to update sooner rather than later with the next chapter. **

**Next Chapter-Lena hears the legends of the werewolves including the story of the 'Cold Ones' as her time in La Push reaches full circle. Again potentially shorter chapter than this one. **


	20. Called In Dead

**Hi, so here is another chapter, and i can confirm we are in the end run as there are only five more chapters left of this story. We get a little bit more back to cannon next chapter as the Cullens (or at least one of them) makes his return. **

**Disclaimer-As always none of this is mine only the character of Lena. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 20-Called In Dead

Lena hears the legends of the werewolves including the story of the 'Cold Ones' as her time in La Push reaches full circle and Billy Black is wise beyond his years (and sick of dealing with the drama). Again, a potentially shorter chapter than the one previously.

* * *

It was easy to forget that she was living some sort of mad dream in which she ran from her problems because whenever she was with Embry it seemed like the world was golden. As the first month she spent in La Push turned rapidly into the second one she found that she was unable to relax properly because her dreams, her thoughts and her very essence seemed to be screaming at her to do something about the family that she knew (as Jacob told Embry and Embry told her) was still in Canada finishing the school year.

After that he didn't know because the Cullen's never really moved on until all of them had finished school and Nessie was soon to be enrolled in one. Lena did not know how much time that gave her to figure out just what she was going to do but she thought somehow that time might just stand still for this endless moment…after all time had stopped in her case for nearly everything else.

The time where decisions would have to be made—fundamental decisions and that would effect the rest of her life. Lena was practical enough to know that if she didn't go back to the Cullen's and explain herself soon then any chance she had at being a member of the family was gone.

It was a sobering thought.

She tried not to think upon that on the moments when she was with Embry preferring instead to spend all night awake staring at the ceiling—that was as lie that she told herself when sleep caught up with her and she had…rather embarrassingly fallen asleep at the back of the barn with Embry who had kept her warm by pulling her against his chest and keeping the nightmares and the questions that always seemed to be in the back of her mind driving her mad.

If Embry noticed that she was still feeling torn about the Cullen's (most specifically about Rosalie and Emmett) he didn't say anything but she thought that he had an inkling that something was troubling her even if he didn't say it out loud. She had learnt that Embry was a lot smarter than he made out to be and that as far as she was concerned he was not saying anything that might force a confrontation.

Knowing herself enough to admit that, that was what he would probably get Lena loved him for it. She found despite her best intentions, despite the promises that she had made herself time and time again she was falling a little bit deeper in love with him as each day passed. There was something so natural about being with him that she had seriously debated weather staying in La Push might not be the worst idea.

After all, she had all eternity to get her diploma.

However whenever she had brief snatches of madness when she thought like this, she was confronted with the image of Rosalie's face when she got wind of her dropping of High School for a werewolf and she felt the overwhelming urge to laugh out loud and then burst into tears.

What was even mortifying was that happened once. She thought she did a masterful job of covering it up because Billy didn't mention it at breakfast the next morning but then again Billy didn't mention much at breakfast anyway nor was he the type to mention other people's emotions or subjects he knew (or suspected) to be taboo.

The only thing he had mentioned was that their was to be another bonfire on Friday and that this time they would be telling the tribes legends and that Lena was invited. Lena thought that there was something in his tone that made it clear that she was not to miss it and when she reported this to Embry after meeting him at the beach after school that afternoon he grinned.

"Yeah that's Billy. The legends are sacred only the village elders really kinda know. They've been embroidered over so much that kids all have a different story. But when you hear the real version it's kinda like a welcome into the pack in a way. Your only one of three outsiders."

"Outsiders?"

"Not from the tribe" Embry elaborated as he saw her raised eyebrow. "There's you and Nessie and Bella Swan"

"Bella?"

"Oh yeah, you see when she was human she was living in the town of Forks—that's where she met Edward but then he left and Jake kinda stepped in and then promptly fell in love with her and then she went back to Edward but by that point she knew all there was to know and the council thought why not?"

Lena could think of several reasons why not. It seemed strange that she had not known about this strange past between Edward, Bella and Jacob but now she thought about it she realised she didn't know much about any of the Cullen's. She supposed she had not really stuck around much. She felt another throb in her head and thought wildly for a second that she had might have lost her little party trick just because she had not used it for so long.

She went back and forth between considering that a good thing or a bad thing on most days. And this was not most days.

"But then Bella got pregnant and Jake split the pack in two and then imprinted on her daughter?"

It was amazing how she could say that and actually know that it made sense in her head. Embry nodded wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He was dressed as he always was for school in a pair of jeans and a blue shirt that made Lena want to do unspeakable things (this time in a good way) and he was actually wearing shoes. She realised that she had never seen him wear shoes. She had become so use to what he usually wore (which was very little) it was strange to think that for the most part, there were five days a week were he was for all intents and purposes a normal human high schooler. It was hard to believe that the same could be said about her. The world that they were on the fringes off seemed so very unreal.

* * *

Lena dressed for the bonfire with considerable care than she had done lately. She had chosen to wear a good pair of jeans that she knew were clean, her wardrobe was not the most inspiring—she had fled Canada with next to nothing and all the really good pieces were back in that wardrobe at home—providing Rosalie had not burned it all down in a fit of anger in the middle of the night. Her top was of an acid wash dark purple that she had picked up in one of the rather limited shops that had been on the Reservation. But either way once her make up (she had replenished that a long time ago) and her hair (thank God for whoever it was that had made and sold straighteners on the market) was presentable hanging down her back in a straight sheet of gold that was darker than Rosalie's but still enough to bring forwards the resemblance.

Lena sat down to pull on her boots and then sighed. She missed Rosalie more than she could easily admit to herself and she had never been one to admit anything to herself unless she had to. She missed the easy relationship she had, had with her and if she was being honest she had denied for too long the conversation she had overheard between Rosalie and Emmett.

A part of her had not wanted to think about it and a part of her had been unable to think of anything else, even when she was with Embry or trying to sleep. It was like her brain had never processed it. There were times when she felt incredibly guilty for the way she had handled everything and that she had to go back and speak her truth and let the chips fall when they may and there was a part of her that wanted nothing more to do than to stay here with Embry where she felt safe even if never whole.

Because she didn't want to admit the truth, the truth that she could finally admit to herself. Once she'd gained the perspective with the absence between them it had been easy to sort out her feelings—actually that had been easier to admit than the guilt that she had felt over killing those two nameless, faceless cheerleaders, her foster parents and dealing with the constant craving that came in between.

But she was scared. She was scared of going back and being rejected and she was scared of what would happen if she didn't.

Lena was pulled out of her mental agonising by Billy asking if she was ready. He was driving mainly because he liked too (she had learnt early on he was fiercely independent despite his injury) and she didn't know how to (she had also learnt that he was stickler for laws and the like) which made life easier. He was also a good driver so Lena had no problem getting into a car with him. He also didn't pressure her into conversation but instead allowed her to stare out the window as she took in the sights. It was comfortable and she knew that deep down she would miss him if things went the way she wanted them too even though they had not done much in terms of conversation.

But surprisingly enough Billy started the conversation.

"Has Embry took you cliff-diving yet?"

Lena whipped around so much she was sure her hair had nearly ended up in Billy's face. For the most part he looked unconcerned. Actually, he looked rather amused.

"Cliff-Diving. It's a local activity. The pack do it all the time of course for them it's less dangerous. Most of the kids around her jump from a low ledge but the boys tend to do it from the top. The adrenaline rush is supposed to be fantastic…but I know Embry enjoys it, thought he might have taken you. I mean you're the only imprint that's truly unbreakable. Well, the only one whose a teenager"

Lena stared at him. She had never known that things like that were legal. Actually she was kinda furious she'd never done it before even though it sounded exceptionally stupid.

"Things are complicated at the minute" she said trying to be diplomatic. "Not for us…not that there is an us but for me"

Billy nodded.

"Ah" he said finally. "You want to go back to them"

Lena stared at him he shrugged.

"Kid, I've raised three teenagers, one's a giant wolf, one married at sixteen and one never came home unless she had too. To say nothing of the teenagers that have been trapesing through my house since time began. Hell I could write a book on what I learnt from Bella Swan alone. I know when a teenager is brooding over something. You want to go back to them but you what? And don't say it's because you think they don't want you. The Doc's never turned down anyone from that family since he became a vampire. Gotten him into a lot of trouble with his own kind on more than one occasion as well"

Lena took that to mean the mysterious Volturi she had heard so much about when she had first taken her steps into this brave new immortal world. She paused trying to figure out what to say. The bluntness of Billy Black was really not something you could ever prepare for.

"Oh" she said finally. "And it's just…it's hard to…I mean Rosalie did more for me…and she's only…"

"She was born in the 1930s I wouldn't say age is a massive thing" Billy said rather dryly. "And she's done more for you than anyone and that's what makes you feel strange about it?"

"Sometimes" Lena said honestly compelled to speak the truth. "It's hard to imagine it. I've been alone for a very long time and I don't know how to deal with the fact that someone out their wants to be my mother or father. Also…it's hard to imagine that there was once two other people who had claim to those titles, and I killed one, and the other one is still out there knowing nothing or…or maybe not stopping"

And that opened up a whole new box of issues she had not thought about. Billy pulled up at the campfire and stopped the car turning to her with eyes that were kinder than Lena thought she deserved.

"Kid, if you want some advice from an old man whose seen too much in this life I wouldn't go chasing down an avenue that you know is going to cause you pain. Not to mention raise up more questions than you can safely answer. Even if you did find your biological mother, and she did have a family you could never really be a part of it. And as for your father—if you want to give him that title then you do so but I don't think any _thing _who can do something like that to woman and then leave is someone you can trust. At least Edward loved Bella, loved her enough to die with her at one point. And while he does not hold regrets over Nessie I think there is a part of him that regrets having sex with Bella while she was still human—" he shrugged. "Jacob and he talk a lot know there not constantly at each other's throats. And Jacob knows how much I worry"

There was a pause as Billy suddenly became very interested in his dashboard which gave Lena the privacy to wipe her fingers under her eye and touch up her eye make up. She found that she was smiling and that this time it was genuine for the first time in days.

"Thanks Billy," she said softly "For everything"

"Ah I don't mind having you Lena…kinda nice to have someone in the house. And as long as you leave me that steak and mushroom sauce recipe I'll consider Carlisle and me even on this score. But do me one favour"

"What?"

Billy jerked his head towards the cluster of boys around the fire. One of them was Embry watching them with his head cocked as if desperately trying not to listen in. Lena smiled at him and he grinned back looking like a kid whose hands had been caught in the cookie jar.

"Don't hurt him. He's been hurt too many times before in his life"

Lena turned to look at him and it was on the tip of her tongue to ask him if he was Embry's Dad. Somehow she didn't think he would lie to her in this moment. But before she could she was say anything Sam was already opening the door to help Billy into his chair and Lena knowing when a conversation was at an end followed suite.

* * *

The legends were in their own way fascinating. They portrayed a look at the past that was never really explored. Lena had been a history geek all her life but she had never really thought of local history as something that was interesting. But now she could see the way that legends and myths and pride over them integrated into everyday life.

She was aware when the tone changed somewhat. The story of the 'Cold Ones' was as fascinating as the other stories but it's meaning was clear. Lena was aware of Embry's eyes flickering to her face on more than one occasion throughout it's telling and Lena kept her own on the flickering flames of the driftwood fire watching it burn blue and seeing (though she didn't want to) the long haired cold woman screaming and another human woman frail and old and stronger than most plunge a dagger into her heart in order to save the rest of her people. It sounded both true and like the plot to a film in development. Lena did not know what to make of it. She didn't really want to think of it.

She could understand why Embry had not told her about the stories. She'd have never have gotten out the car before.

* * *

They walked alongside the beach again in the dark and she paused staring at the stars in the sky and in the dark the cliff top straining out in the dark.

"Embry" she said finally. "I need to tell you something. But first, I need you to promise me you'll do something for me as well"

Embry to his credit looked only a little worried.

* * *

Well Lena thought grimly, she had asked to do this and she was now reaping what she had sown.

"You know you don't have to do it" Embry said trying and failing to hide his amusement. "I wont think less of you if your scared"

"I'm not scared" Lena snapped. "Trust me this is the least of my worries"

And just to prove a point—and because she really didn't want to have to think about it, she dove of the cliff.

She hit the water like a cannon ball and Lena had a second to apricate the fact that she had just jumped off a cliff when she hit the water and her eyes and mouth were hit with the salt water.

Blinking furiously her eyes burning she forced herself upwards and hit the surface as Embry did at the same time. Lena flipped on her back glad she was wearing only shorts and a swimsuit that had really seen better days and stared up at the sun beating in the blue sky. It was an uncommonly sunny day and she revelled in it.

She sat back up again and with Embry's help (she could swim of course but she wasn't what one would call a strong swimmer) she made it back to shore and sat down on the blanket he had brought with them.

"That was incredible" she said finally. "Thank you"

She was saying thank you to a lot more than cliff diving but she still did not know how to say the words.

Embry took her hand in his own and smiled at her and she knew he understood.

"You ready?" he asked.

Lena nodded. His warm hand was still encased in his own and she closed her eyes and found through the sparks of minds the one she wanted. She had thought long and hard about which person she wanted to speak to and this she knew was the right choice.

She found the mental switch and flipped it.

There was a pause and then she spoke.

_"__Hello? Is…I mean are you out there? Cause if you are…I think I want to come home now" _

The silence seemed to stretch within her and she found she was gripping Embry's hand tightly though he was drawing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. Just when it seemed all hope was lost she felt something, she heard something.

It was the unmistakable voice of Emmett McCarty-Cullen and when she heard it the disbelief in his tone made something within her hurt a little and though she couldn't put the words to it, she knew what it was now.

She supposed she had always known.

Deep down.

And there it was.

_"__Lena?" _

Lena jumped off the cliff.

* * *

**And there you are, i hope you enjoyed it. As always stay safe and well and happy and i will endevour to bring you chapter 21 soon. **

**Next Chapter-Lena and Emmett meet for a summet in which they talk through things. Emmett reaches a decison and plans for the future are made. **


	21. The Hard Part

**Hi, so here is another chapter, there are now only four more chapters left of this story so i hope you all enjoy. I worked quite hard on this one so please let me know what you think. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine, just this chapter, Lena and some history of Emmett's that i embelished. **

**Please Read and Review and let me know waht you think. A big thank you to all of you who have done this so far! **

**And I wish all of you reading this all the best. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 21-The Hard Part.

Lena and Emmett meet for a summit, in which they talk through things. Emmett reaches a decision and plans for the future are made.

* * *

He was nervous.

Odd really, he was a vampire, an immortal creature and he was feeling nervous because some girl was about to get off the plane and speak to him.

Emmett had not felt nervous for a long time. Throughout the Volturi debacle he had felt a combination of excitement, sheer determination to ensure that their plan would work and the phantom twinge of pain that came whenever he imagined life without Rosalie. Through the battle with the Newborns he had felt nothing but excitement and impatience. He had not worried about Rosalie as much as he had with the Volturi because he had known that she could handle herself against Newborns and despite the fact that she had smelt like ash and dead vampire (and ickly sweet smell) for hours she had been fine.

The last time he had felt this nervous was when he was courting Rosalie. Even human, nerves were not something he was attuned too. He didn't know to feel them. Courting Rosalie, battling the blood lust with the love that had confused the hell out of him in those painful early days had been a different story as had asking for her hand in marriage (the first time) and the first time he had taken her to bed determined to make sure that she only remembered him and not the phantom touches of all those other shits who had never deserved the moniker of man.

Even now though he was dead, his family was dead and his empire scattered into the dust the very thought of Royce King II made his mouth pool with venom and a growl build up within his throat.

He shook his head trying to rid himself of that thought least he scare some humans and draw unnecessary attention to himself.

The airport for a Friday night was busy. Emmett had always preferred to run or swim if they were travelling a bone of contention between himself and his wife who thought that swimming in silk was sacrilege. Planes had never interested him. He had watched them evolve over the years and they had never sat right with him, plus the draining lack of stimulus on them and the cramped leg room—oh the leg room! It didn't bare even thinking about. And that was before you got to the blood and the sweat and the thirst.

But back to the earlier point.

He had not told Rosalie that he was here.

He had listened to Lena's response that she was coming home and that she wanted to talk to him and Rosalie about the future and he had calmly replied that he would meet her at the airport, kissed his wife, didn't catch Edward's eye, went for a run, found himself at the border and had decimated a small forest.

All in all he was rather proud of that response.

The reason he had not told Rosalie was really very simple. He was not going to cause his wife pain if he could avoid it. She had done an admirable job of pretending that the last two months had not hurt and had thrown herself into demolishing and restoring a rather old Jaguar and with the exception perhaps of Jasper and Esme she had fooled all of them. She didn't even try with Emmett. The fact that she was still vacuuming Lena's room, changing the sheets and making sure the clothes were sprayed with some sort of lavender spray so that they were fresh was telling as was the fact that the freezer seemed to have some of Lena's favourite things just waiting their neatly stocked in a small pile.

Her emotions had been completely intact. She didn't talk to him about her feelings that much but he had been studying Rosalie Hale since he had opened his eyes to this new immortal world and seen her watching him from the corner of the room. He knew that she was understanding things in ways that she never had before. Indeed so was Emmett. He understood now what Edward's trip to Volterra had done his parents, he understood how it had felt for them when Edward had disappeared for nearly fifty years, he could understand what it had been like for them when Alice and Jasper had disappeared in their hour of need. He understood all of that and more and he found that he was desperate to see this little thing that had come into his life and somehow made it very difficult to leave.

He knew that their kind felt more. It was a natural chemical thing, their emotions were heightened and they formed attachments easier than most humans because when they formed them they stayed for all eternity.

Emmett found however that this conversation Lena had wanted to have could go either way. She could either want to come home and become a member of the family or she could leave and go travelling again—Emmett had never had to worry about money since becoming a Cullen but he had caught a glimpse at some of the bills and he had to hide his wince. Lena was not having a cheep breakdown in fact she was comfortably in hotel rooms ever night eating steak done blue and downloading episodes of 'The Golden Girls' by the series.

Whatever decision she made Emmett knew it would be forever. And if it was the one where she chose to leave them, he would take the pain first and he would be the one to break the news to his wife.

He could smell when Lena got off the plane because the smell of her didn't change. Between the stench of stale perfume and dirt and grime he was attuned to the smell of her. Her hair which was still the same coconut shampoo and conditioner that she used, the body spray she covered herself with and the lotion that smelt like roses. That was before he saw her.

She was coming round a pillar suitcase in hand. A small carry on. Emmett watched silently in a manner that he thought and hoped was discreet and he catalogued all the changes. Two months in a nearly mature half vampire was the difference between looking like a child and looking like an adult.

Her hair was still the same length but the blonde had become a shader darker with the sun, her skin was still pale but there was a glow about it that Emmett suspected also came with the sun exposure that she had been getting. She was wearing a pair of black high waisted shorts and a t-shirt that was cropped. She was wearing sunglasses perched on her head and her feet were crammed into converse sneakers. She looked like the average backpacker come home from travelling and Emmett taking her in suddenly had the urge to go to her throw his jacket over her and lecture her about inappropriate attire.

In human terms she was fifteen, in vampire terms probably seven, she didn't need to be showing any leg or midriff for crying out loud!

She caught sight of him and then stopped. Emmett smiled and waved trying to show that he was not going to shout or yell…in fact all he wanted to do was give the kid a hug. Christ was this what actual parents went through? Lena seemed to come to some internal decision and then she walked through the airport towards him. Emmett did a quick check of the area behind her and noted with a flicker of relief that she had come alone and that the werewolf was not there. That was a good thing on two accounts. He wanted to talk to Lena alone and trying to get werewolf stench out of leather upholstery was a utter bitch.

Thank God Carlisle had seen reason and got Jacob his own car.

"Hi" Lena said coming over. Emmett took note of the bags under her eyes and the way she was steadily ignoring looking him in the face. Emmett sighed again feeling something, some sort of emotion that was brewing somewhere inside of him making his teeth clench.

"Hi" he said gently. Rosalie was always going on about not scaring Lena when she came back same as she had when she had murdered her foster parents and had promptly fainted in her arms.

"You hungry?" he asked because a prolonged living arrangement with Nessie and Bella had taught him that humans needed to eat a lot more than vampires. She nodded and Emmett opened the car door on the passenger side and she slid in dumping her bag at her feet and using it as some sort of a foot rest.

* * *

He had no idea where to take her but he knew she liked pizza so he pulled up at an Italian place he knew by name only. A folded ball of bills saw them to a booth and some semblance of privacy and Lena had ordered a coke, something called bruschetta, mushroom ravioli and a pepperoni pizza and a beer that Emmett supposed he was supposed to be drinking rather than her but she would inevitably drink. He did not know much about food—the little he could remember was the thin stew his mother used to serve nine times out of ten and the fact that meat was always considered a treat.

There was a pause where the food was delivered and Lena promptly began to eat as if she had not ate before. Emmett looked at it with distain. He would never understand the appeal of food like that.

"Werewolf not with you?"

"No, it's finals week in La Push. He's staying there but…if things go a certain way…I might be going back so…" she kept eating but clinically. Emmett took that on the chin though he had no idea what she was thinking.

"Why are you here Lena?" he said finally as her food was being delivered. "Why did you want to meet?"

Lena took a gulp of the beer and then passed it back to him before they could be pulled up.

"I thought I owed you an explanation"

Emmett snorted, he really didn't want to but he wanted to shake the girl silly. An explanation was the least of the things that she owed him.

"I'm sorry if I put you in danger by killing those girls" she said finally her hair covering her face. Emmett sighed again. He'd had more air in his lungs during this conversation than the entire decade of the 1960s—drugs were never good for vampires to breathe in—and resisted the urge to snap.

"That is the least of my worries. Lena we can take care of ourselves and you produced a crime scene that would fool CSI. What means more to me was what happened afterwards. What happened when you left and all we got was a shit tone of bills and a few phone calls from Jacob from his father that told us you were shacked up with some wolf I didn't get a chance to threaten!"

Lena stared at him for a second.

"That's really all you care about? I mean—" she lowered her voice so that only Emmett with his vampire hearing could pick up on. "I killed two people?!" She shook her head and Emmett felt the bizarre urge to laugh. Kid really didn't have a clue did she?

Lena took a piece of that disgusting cheese thing between her teeth and tugged off a mouthful looking pensive. Emmett stared at her for a second and then decided to just go with honesty.

"Lena, I don't care about that, you messed up yeah but you are not the first in this family and not the last to do that. I have drank a lot of human blood, Jasper did it for nearly a hundred years, Edward went on a killing spree. Esme slipped up once and ended up creating a ten mile car accident. Even Alice has had her moments it's why we avoid Baltimore. Even Rosalie has killed. If you want to hold yourself up to a higher standard try Carlisle but I promise you it took him nearly four centuries. At some point I imagine Bella will slip. If you think for a second that any of us would cast you out over that then you are really mistaken"

Lena stared at him for a second and then took another slice pushing the dish towards him. "At least have a bite" she said finally. "Otherwise it looks strange"

Emmett took a slice and chewed resisting the urge to throw it up. God he was sure dirt tasted better than this. He put the slice back and Lena picked it up again and ate with gusto and clearly without issue. She looked at him again her blue eyes wide.

"Ok" she said finally. "But I had to figure that out for myself. I am responsible for four deaths, if they had found that out in some states that's the needle."

Emmett snorted. "Wouldn't get near the skin" he said firmly. They were still whispering and he noticed that the waitress was eyeing the table behind them for a couple. He shot her his most frightening look and she directed them to a place across the restaurant. He wanted privacy where he wasn't overheard and the woman had made a seven hundred dollar tip out of it.

Lena eyed him in a slightly judgemental way for a second and then decided to cut to the chase and come out with it.

"And that whole thing I overheard…about me being your daughter?"

And there it was.

Emmett paused thinking hard. He was suddenly painfully aware that his own hopes (not to mention the hopes of his wife) were on the edge of something here. There was no point in denying it. And there was no point in denying his feelings for this incredibly frustrating but yet wonderful kid sat in front of him her focus on her pasta that was dripping with some sort of cream sauce that made Emmett want to puke just looking at it.

"Truth?" he said finally.

Lena nodded.

"Lena, let me explain somethings first. The way our kind work is different from the average human. Think of the most loving and wonderful marriage you can think of, were the people don't even think about looking at someone else because their love is too strong and too powerful. And then you multiply it by ten thousand and your not even in the same ball park as what we feel for each other. We feel so deeply that when our other half is destroyed or leaves us we physically cannot go on. It's beyond any agony that we have ever been through. I have only been in one situation where I have imagined the very real possibility of losing Rosalie and even now…"

He shook his head both to stop the conversation and to stop the thought because he was not sure how to tell this kid that even the very thought of losing Rosalie had his long dormant heart thrashing in such pain he wanted to curl into a corner and never get up again.

"What I am trying to say is that…look…I…Rosalie and I feel that way for you, in the same way Esme and Carlisle feel about us. And we feel it deeply. Lena" he leaned forwards because it was imperative he understood this. "We will feel like this for eternity. No matter what you do."

Lena looked at him for a long time and then she dropped her eyes back to her pasta clinically taking another bite and swallowing another bite of pasta. There was a pause and then when she looked up he saw the tears in her eyes.

"Even after I left? You still want me even though I left you, even though I think I love Embry?"

Emmett laughed. Several patrons looked around in alarm. Lena took that opportunity to down the rest of the beer in three gulps. He shook his head again trying to look less…well…like a vampire.

"Darling" he said finally. "Rose and me are gonna want you for the rest of eternity. Even if you never call us Mom and Dad, even if we never have anything beyond what we have now"

"But I killed my Mom" Lena said her eyes over bright and Emmett felt an urge to do something—anything—to stop those tears from falling. "I killed her and then if you get to my father…I mean Emmett I am either the product of rape or the product of a union which decimated a woman. How can you love me?"

Emmett reached out and took one thin hand the nails covered in chipped navy blue polish in his own.

"Lena look at me"

She did a bit reluctantly.

"Lena…one day Rose will tell you the story of how she became a vampire and when she does you will understand that the world cannot function without monsters within it. As far as we are concerned it doesn't matter. It never did matter. And if I was your parent, mother or father I would damn proud of you and the person and the character you are. Can you let Rosalie and me love you for that. Can you love us?"

Lena hiccupped.

"Yes" she said finally. "But…it might be a century or two before I call you Dad"

"Ah that's ok kid." He said finally when he could use words again.

Emmett grinned feeling lighter than he had done in a long time. This was a new feeling—one he had never envisioned feeling—god when he got home he was giving Carlisle a hug.

A big one. Edward was right, they owed him so much for this extraordinary life.

Lena turned back to her pasta.

"You think Rosalie will want me back?"

Emmett grinned again.

"Providing you go to school, get a degree, don't disappear on us again and keep your actions with that werewolf to a minimum Rosalie wont care if you decided to tap dance across the stage at your graduation. I personally was thinking Harvard for your college but then again…so long as it's this side of the continental US."

Lena looked down at her pasta then and Emmett became very interested in the bird sat on the hood of a rather attractive Mercedes which gave Lena enough time to wipe her eyes and replenish her mascara so that she could hide the show of emotion.

"Can I get some pie before we go home?" Lena said finally. "And a deer? Also I promised Embry I'd ring him"

Emmett grinned. Fatherhood it seemed came in many shapes and sizes and if a banoffee pie a dead deer and a phone call to a werewolf got his daughter back in her bed tonight then he didn't care.

Of course he had to get this past Rosalie but he thought that was the easiest part of the hard part they had gone through to get to where they were.

Of course this was Rosalie. She did loath being predicable.

"Course kid" he said reaching for his phone so that he could discreetly text Carlisle and let him know that by this time tomorrow there was a very good chance Esme would be building a new house for them.

"We can have pie"

Emmett was a simple man who had grown up in the 1930s. What the hell was 'Banoffee' anyway?

* * *

**And there you are, let me know what you think and i will endevour to update sooner rather than later. See you all next time. **

**Next Chapter-Rosalie and Lena meet, Rosalie's story is told and a new understanding is reached. **


	22. Back Where You Belong

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I hope you all enjoy, i am gonna keep this one short and sweet. **

**For anyone wondering why i didn't go into detail over the events of the 'Unhappy Ending' chapter it's because quite frankly no words could do Rosalie's story justice other than the ones that spell out Royce King II got what he deserved and then some. (in this author's opinion) **

**Some Trigger Warnings for discussions of rape. **

**And we are only three chapters left of this story!**

**Disclaimer-Nothing in here apart from Lena is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 22-Back Where You Belong

Rosalie and Lena meet, Rosalie's story is told and a new understanding is reached. Potentially shorter chapter than ones previous.

* * *

Rosalie got the call at 4.45 pm. She listened very carefully as Emmett with that teasing tone that she knew he thought meant that he could get out of trouble with her by being charming and she thought that she would scream with both an intense combination of joy and fury.

There was a long pause as she stood there in their bedroom in Canada before she let the phone drop to the floor. While she and Emmett had never needed beds she had always endeavoured to make sure that their space when all the Cullen's stayed together as a family was one that spoke directly to them and both their personalities and individuals and as a couple. And while it was clear that Esme was the designer within the family Rosalie found that it was easier for her to bond with her adoptive mother (especially in the beginning) when they sat down looking over designs about what room she wanted and how best it could suit her particular tastes. Emmett had always been unconcerned about how their room looked or their house though he apricated she had always had a taste for both luxury and for glamour that had come with the knowledge that if one was born a Hale one was born royal. Considering Emmett still flinched slightly when he saw the amount of money that he had accumulated over the years some attitudes of his decade were hard to fake.

Anyway back to the point she carefully looked at herself in the mirror. The looking glass had been a present from Esme actually for her first birthday as a vampire when she could remember actually being a vampire. The rest of the time she had been too consumed by blood lust in order to care. The glass was smooth and shiny and the frame of off an old bronze oak colour that in summer looked like gold when the light hit it. Rosalie choose now, this moment to take stock in her appearance. She took stock in her eyes which were the colour of pure butterscotch due to feeding beforehand. She took in her hair and her face and the clothes she was wearing which were a nice pair of blue jeans lighter than usual and a black t-shirt that plunged a little with the v-neck. She looked like a normal teenager. Nobody would ever think that she was a vampire, an immortal creature who was going to meet her vampire lover and her half vampire daughter who did not know yet that she was her half vampire daughter.

All in all it was very confusing.

But then again she was Rosalie Hale. Regardless of whatever situation she was in she could always count on her beauty to give her comfort in whatever situation she was in.

And with that she pulled her boots on and then leapt from the window and went in search of Emmett's last location. She was not sure weather or not she was going to hug him or throw him through the glass window of his jeep, she figured it was best to decided on the way there.

Emmett was in the parking lot of some restaurant. Rosalie thought that it was Italian judging by the overwhelming smell of basil but it was hard to tell. The trends in food had never been there in her childhood. In the 1930s you were just glad if you could but food on your table and a roof over your children's head.

"She's inside" Emmett said finally. He was leaning against the wall watching her wearily. "She's ok mostly. Bit confused, I think it all caught up on her at once. Told her if she's looking for sainthood over those two girls she's in the wrong place."

Rosalie raised and eyebrow and curled her hands into fists. She was not going to comment on the fact that Emmett had not answered the question she was desperate to ask about. She was sure that she was ready to hear the answer.

Emmett on the other hand knew her better than she knew herself sometimes and therefore he answered the question that she was trying very hard not to ask.

"She knows, she knows how we feel about her. And…"

And here Emmett chose to wait a second before that slow wondering grin came upon his face that reminded her of the night where they had talked in 1940 as the world had changed and they had changed. She had told him that night about Royce and that she thought (as she had) at the time that she was unworthy of the purity of his love even though she loved him and all he had took away from that conversation was the fact that she loved him.

That smile nearly brought her to her knees even more than sixty years after the fact.

Anyway she looked at him as Emmett smiled at her.

"I think she feels the same way"

"You do?"

"She said as much. She's just…I think she's confused about how to go from no parents to new parents, and granted I don't know much about the foster system but you and I both know she's been pushed from pillar to post and then you factor in finding out that our world exists…but she…she wants us to be her parents, I mean were not gonna be Mom and Dad tomorrow but…but we've got a long time to figure that out. And she wants to stay to try"

Rosalie took a deep breath and then she nodded. Emmett opened his arms and she folded into them breathing in his scent and feeling the urge to giggle rise up within her. It was not perfect, but it was the closest thing she had, had in months and she was going to grab it with wide, open, greedy hands.

Emmett pulled back and tucked his finger a little under her chin in a way that had a part of her melting.

"Where is she?"

"Inside, she's ate like a ton of human food. She's working her way through something called banoffee pie and a low fat caramel coffee Frappuccino and if you have any idea what that is then you are a smarter vampire than me"

Rosalie didn't know what that was—well she knew it was some form of coffee though when she was still human coffee had been worth five cent and that had been considered outrageous. She forced stale air into her lungs that did not need it and then stared at her mate and her husband who was looking at her with an amused expression that did absolutely nothing to hide how happy he was at the turn of events.

"Anything else I should know before we go in there?"

"I didn't tell her about your past. Somewhere between the pie and the coffee and the third coke I ended up telling her how we met, at least the bear story and she took that pretty well. But I didn't mention anything to do with New York or—"

Emmett cut himself off abruptly and then gnashed his teeth together in a way that he always did whenever the man that had made her what she was today was mentioned. Rosalie said nothing. Everything she had, had to say on the matter had been said to this man in front of her. There was no point in dragging up those memories for Emmett now. The last time she had done so was for Bella and that had been a useless exercise in a way because Bella had still ended up getting what she wanted.

But there was a sense here that everything had to be clean and out in the open between them. She felt that. Besides the girl was going to know her story one day. She read minds for crying out loud. Rosalie only gave it a few months before Lena with both her supernatural powers and her very human powers of persuasion got the entire story out of her.

And this was a story Rosalie wanted to tell her daughter on her own terms in her own time and in her own way.

"Give us a minute" she said to Emmett who nodded. His hand caught her left one. It didn't matter how many fancy engagement rings he got her over the years they played this human charade of getting married she still kept the original engagement ring on her left hand even if it wasn't on the ring finger. The single diamond was square cut on a gold band. It had been a simple ring for a simpler time when the world had been at war and it had meant more to her than the rest of the flashy ones but together. Royce had given her a flashy engagement ring and she had taken a great pleasure of putting that gaudy piece of trash on his pinky finger as she had deposited his body outside his father's office essentially started a course of action that saw the King Banks being taken to the ground.

And then she entered the restaurant.

It was not difficult to see Lena sat there. For a second Rosalie stood there and drank in the sight of the girl for the first time in two months. She looked a lot better than Rosalie had thought she would and that made her smile. Lena was the same person she had always been—supremely capable of looking after herself despite the fact she didn't need to.

Rosalie knew what that was like all too well.

Lena looked up and caught her eye. She didn't smile but she did push away her food. She didn't look as if she was itching for a fight either which was a far cry from how she had looked in those early days.

"Hello" Lena said as Rosalie slid down into the seat opposite her. Rosalie smiled at the waiter that was coming over and he rapidly turned the other way blushing furiously. Good that got them some privacy. She turned around starting at Lena who was watching her.

"How was Mexico?"

"Good, I mean all the travelling was just a form of escapism really. La Push was…ok…Embry and I decided we want to be in a relationship but were not going to do anything physical until I become my human vampire age so…I…I'm sorry for what I put you through I just…I had to clear my head and to think, get away and try and put things into perspective"

Rosalie took a calm breath—honestly she had no idea how Esme did this parenting thing. She wanted to both hug this insane little half human in front of her and throttle her at the same time for two months of utter terror that she was out there, alone, scared and needing…

Her mother.

But she wanted to do this clean and prepared and therefore there was one thing that she needed to do.

"Emmett has informed me that you…you want us to be your parents"

_Oh brilliant Rosalie way to sound like an invigilator at an exam. _

"If you still want to be my parents…then yes…" Lena said finally. "I know I've put you through a lot. And I know that I've been coy and unkind in some places and I'm not gonna promise you that I will wake up tomorrow and call you Mom especially not when I think of someone else who had that moniker and what she must have thought of me but…but I think that I have felt loved for the first time in my life. And that was with you and Emmett and…and I've got a long life to live. And if you want me, I want to live it with you"

There was a long pause.

Rosalie felt the harsh feeling in her throat rise as she knew that she was as close to tears as she could get. This was it. This was everything she wanted. This was the pinnacle of her human dreams. Granted it was not the same, there was no baby with her hair and Emmett's dimples and there was no grey hairs and people would always look at Lena and think of her as her sister and not as mother and daughter. But to her, to the supernatural community it did mean something. It meant that Lena Rodgers had chosen them…that she had looked at Rosalie and thought that there was something in her that would make a good mother. It was a powerful feeling.

And it was as close to the emotion, to the moniker as she would get.

If one day down the line she was Mom…then…then she could forgive Carlisle for her transformation, she could forgive her mother and father for their insane expectations, she could forgive Bella…for having the baby that she always wanted and perhaps one day she could let go of the anger, the bitterness, the vanity and the pride that had consumed her since that dark day in Rochester in 1933.

Thinking of that night forced her back to reality.

"I do want that" she said finally. "More than I can say. But…but I feel I have to share something with you because…because Lena if we are going to do this then I want to do this clean. I have to tell you about me, about my childhood, about my human life in Rochester, about how I became a vampire…I have…I have to tell you about Royce King II"

That precious little girl who was so close to being Rosalie's precious little girl tilted her head and watched her with those eyes and Rosalie shook her blonde hair again and then when she thought she was under enough control to tell this story without Emmett by her side (though no doubt he was listening and close to destroying property—as he always was when her human life was discussed) she began to speak about Rochester, about Vera and Henry, and about the man that had offered her everything and then had been the one to take it all away.

When she was done, Lena was still watching her. Her expression had changed more than a couple of times throughout the story and she was now silent tracing her finger against the condensation of the plastic cup.

"That'…that's terrible" she said finally. "And…and I get what that must have cost to share with me…but…but it doesn't matter to me"

Rosalie stared at her.

"It doesn't?"

Lena looked at her as if she had said something surprising.

"If you count my mother I have killed five people. Does that matter to you?"

"No" Rosalie said simply.

"Then why should your past bother me? It doesn't diminish you to me in any way. In fact the fact that you kinda killed him wearing a wedding dress is all kinds of badass"

There was a pause as Rosalie tried to comprehend that.

"Truly" Lena said a small smile playing on her face. "It doesn't matter to me Rosalie. It would never matter to me. It never will matter to me."

And with that she slid her hand over the table so that Rosalie could grasp it, which she did gratefully, they stayed that way for a moment and though it was early days, though it was not the happy ending she had dreamed off, Rosalie thought that there was something there that had changed.

Suddenly the future was a little bit brighter.

Everything was back where it belonged.

* * *

**And there you are, i hope you enjoyed and as always i will endevour to update soon. **

**Next Chapter-Emmett, Rosalie and Lena adjust to their new family unit. The Cullens consider a move. Embry and Lena have a viritual date. And some research begins that allows the beginning of some closure.  **


	23. Yours, Mine And Ours

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I hope you all enjoy this one and I can confirm there are only two more chapters of this story left and then we are done!**

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine but Lena. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**And wishing you all health, happiness and a good day. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 23-Yours, Mine And Ours

Rosalie, Emmett and Lena adjust to their new family unit. The Cullen's consider a move. Embry and Lena have a virtual date—of sorts—and some research is undertaken which leads to the beginning of some much needed closure for the newest member of the Cullen clan.

* * *

If Lena had thought it had been hard to come back to that big house with the glass windows and the room where she could see the forest with the bathroom that now for some reasons had jets in the bath and a padded toilet seat that she certainly did not remember having when she left.

The Cullen's had either known that she was coming in advance and had chance to prepare or they were used to family members descending down on without any given warnings. Actually with Alice on their side it could be either or.

Either way she slid from the car where she was sure she had fallen asleep (half vampires were not immune it seemed to jet lag) and had staggered out as Emmett had easily taken her carry on into the house. Rosalie had stood next to her but seemed almost hesitant to touch her of which Lena was slightly relieved about. She was not sure weather or not she wanted to deal with anything more when already her head was pounding fit to burst.

It was dusk and Edward and Bella had gone back to their small cottage that they kept for the privacy of Nessie. Jacob had gone to his small bungalow that Esme had made for him clearly in Lena's absence but the rest of the Cullen's—or at least the other four remaining where all in the house when Lena staggered in.

Esme had been waiting by the back stairs and had flown across the room nearly her caramel coloured hair curling around her shoulders in waves that would have been impossible for any mortal to maintain for more than three hours. She was dressed in a pencil skirt of black with a long sleeved silken green blouse tucked into it. Carlisle who had been stood next to her in a way that told Lena they had co-ordinated in a way to ensure that they were less threatening than before if such a thing was even possible. Lena let Esme hug her because it seemed the easiest thing to do in the circumstances but the fact of the matter was she was so tired she could barely speak and she was only half aware of Jasper and Alice watching from the corner of the room that had served as the television room and was now rearranged into something that Lena's brain didn't choose this moment to comprehend.

"Esme why don't we let Lena sleep and then we can have a talk in the morning?"

That was Rosalie…her…no…for now it was Rosalie. Thinking of her in a certain role and hearing about it were two entirely different things. She swallowed again feeling the exhaustion of what was pulling at her hit her and she stumbled a little.

She was aware then of someone pulling her upstairs. Of somehow finding the body parts for pyjama's that had been freshly laundered and sheets that had been changed and smelt fresher, in a neater bed than she left it that day two months ago.

She barely remembered her head hitting the pillow before sleep claimed her and therefore she did not see or hear the closing of her curtains, the smoothing back of her hair or the fact that a woman with even blonder and even longer hair than hers was stood there at the edge of the door looking backwards as if she could not believe the events that had just taken place in the hours beforehand.

Sleep however had come and for once it was dreamless and Lena slept comfortable and warm in her own bed, free from nightmares and regrets and the consequences of Jacob's mattress playing havoc on her back because seriously than thing had been worn down over the years by a teenager who had done more than his fair share of tossing, turning and she was sure as well, bleeding into his mattress.

* * *

When she woke up it was late afternoon and the sky was cloudy hiding away the sun that usually hit Vancouver around this time of year. Lena who had spent months travelling around some of the hottest places in the world found the sun rather comforting and she spent a time marvelling at the shimmer in her skin. It was nothing compared to what she knew a full vampire looked like, in fact all it looked like to her was that she had overdone it on the shimmer lotion and the highlighter but she still marvelled at the sight now that she had an explanation for the glowing that (surprisingly) to her made sense.

She stood in front of the window watching the trees and the sky and hearing the rippling of the water of the lake that ran close to the house and thought to herself that she was glad to be home. La Push had been serene and when she had been with Embry she had felt safe but yet there had been times when she had been alone and while Emily especially had done her best to make her feel included she had felt the askance glances and the seen the raised eyebrows that had made her want to hide behind Embry and never come out from behind his back again.

Here she had no such issue. She was what she was here. She was Lena. Lena the half-vampire and while her thoughts strayed to the woman and the man that had made her she found that no longer was she kept awake at night wondering about them until the point of tears and anger and hatred bubbling up inside her.

But she knew that she couldn't remain up their in the bedroom. She had to go downstairs at some point and face the music she had denied listening too last night when she had been too tired to even stand.

But that did not mean that she had do the very moment, in fact she wanted to look somewhat presentable when she got downstairs and looking like she did now was not the way to go about it. So instead she unpacked her small belongings, the clothes and the sand dollar from Mexico, the books and the small wooden wolf Embry had given her on her shelf, she put away the laptop she had bought—though she had already had one—and the candle she had gotten from France, the statues, the small little trinkets and the scattered bits and pieces of the life that she had cobbled together when she had thought she'd had no one and nothing to come back too.

She took out the folded picture she had kept at the bottom of the bag simply out of necessity. It had been a selfie that Embry had taken that he'd printed out for her of the two of them during a day that had seemed to go on forever and never ended.

Lena sighed tucking it away in her draw for a day when she was feeling pathetic and when she was missing Embry and his easy smiles and the way he looked at her as if she was golden. Today was not one of those days. Today was a day where even the shower did not make her feel confident, she showered and scrubbed and buffed and polished and lamented at the fact that she needed new straighteners because her hair was still refusing to stay straight.

When she finally found a pair of clean jeans and a t-shirt that had a rim of white around the bottom contrasting with the black and she left her feet bare. She went downstairs to see what was going on.

Actually it looked rather normal all things considering.

Emmett and Rosalie her…Mom and Dad she supposed now were called were sat at the table peering at the screen of a computer. Lena really hoped that they were not looking at her credit card bills as she suspected that she had gone a little bit overboard the last time but the Mexican food was seriously as good as the Mexican hunting and that had been impressive.

Carlisle was sat reading some big textbook and taking notes in a pen that Lena knew if she used would be coated in ink within ten seconds. Esme was sketching on a big pad in the corner still looking as if she was best friends with the big screen stars of the 1930s. Jasper was also reading his brow furrowed in concentration and Lena could not make out the title of the book because it was in some language she couldn't from this distance (and with her rather limited knowledge) recognise. Alice was sat next to him leaning against his shoulder and flipping through a pile of magazines a red pen in hand ready to circle anything she wanted. Lena dithered a bit longer in the doorway and saw Edward scratching at a music sheet his brown furrowed as well and looking extremely frustrated by what she thought was the slow coming together of his music. Bella was curled up on the armchair her legs thrown over the side and she too was reading but Lena could identify the extremely battered book as the complete works of Jane Austen and therefore didn't interrupt.

"Are you going to come in?"

That was Edward who was scowling at his music sheet now and crossing off notes. Lena came in a little bit more, she saw her laptop plugged in and she went to sit at the big table wondering when the yelling was going to start. She might have gotten approval from Rosalie and Emmett but she was not sure she was going to get it from the rest of her family.

Edward snorted. "Carlisle will you please tell Lena that she is not going to be yelled at so I can continue with this beast of a composition."

Lena scowled at him. _"Traitor" _

Edward snorted.

"Of course we are not going to yell Lena" Carlisle said putting a bookmark in his textbook. "But I would hope that you have learnt that actions in this world have consequences. Slip ups happen but we must be cautious. This family I fear is on thin ice in the immortal world and it we would do well not to draw attention to ourselves for the next couple of centuries."

Lena nodded taking the rebuke with the gentle tone in which it was offered.

"Were is Nessie and Jacob?" she asked finally.

"School. Nessie has another week before she leaves and Jacob had a last minute essay to get feedback on. Plus he wanted to speak to his Dad"

There was something there that Lena didn't understand, something big and gnarly that she thought about asking Bella about—she had not missed the look shared between her and Edward nor had she missed the fluttering of the connection against her own mind. But she was not going to ask. Right now things were calm. And she was not going to rock the boat.

"We've been thinking about moving now school is finished" Jasper said not looking up over the top of his book. Lena jumped a little. She understood the notion behind it, indeed she had not expected them to be here when she got back but the thought of leaving the only city, the only country that she had known was rather jarring.

"Where to?"

"Well…we've looked at places in the States, but we thought about moving somewhere in Canada for another year, give you enough time to get a human graduation diploma"

Lena blinked, she had not thought of that and the thought that this family all of whom (bar one) had been born and made in America were prepared to stay in another country just for her was touching to the core.

"Thanks" she said swallowing harshly and then turning back to her laptop. Nobody commented on the fact that she had to blink rather rapidly before directing her attention elsewhere. Lena smiled despite herself.

* * *

_'__I'm so happy it went alright' _

That was Embry, they were sharing thoughts and Lena was pleased to see that he was getting better at recognising when she wanted to use her gifts. After all not once tonight had he started any conversation by swearing.

_'__So am I. And I think I could really like being Rosalie and Emmett's daughter. But…but there is one thing, were moving. It's gonna be somewhere in Canada, they want to stay so I can get a diploma here. It…is that gonna be alright with you?" _

_'__Don't see why not' _ Embry said in a careless sought of way. Lena grinned and fist pumped into the darkness knowing that nobody could see her.

_'__Hell I like a good run and Canada's nice for a wolf, lots of clean air and snow and woods to hide in. Besides It will be a way for me to condition myself to the smell" _

Lena laughed out loud.

Embry cackled in her head too and she found her heart was lighter than she was in weeks.

She was home.

* * *

Rosalie was rubbing hand cream on her hands when Emmett came out of the bathroom with a look that she recognised as one he gave whenever he had done something, anything that he knew she would not approve off.

She wiped her hands (granted her skin was perfect but she liked to keep to some routines she depended on in the 1930s) and then turned to her husband.

"What did you do?" she asked reaching for her hairbrush

Emmett gave a sigh and ran a hand through his hair and then pulling at the blanket she kept on the edge of the couch for nights when she wished she was human and could feel the cold.

"Rose I think I found Lena's human Mom" he said finally.

Rosalie dropped the hairbrush.

Upstairs she could hear her daughter giggle.

* * *

**And there it is, that is the last cliffhanger of this story. **

**Next Chapter-As Lena finally gets some closure she comes face to face with another half human, half vampire who wants an explanation for why Lena disappeared. Penultimate chapter of this story. **


	24. Acceptance

**And here is the penultimate chapter. Hello to you all and welcome to the final stages of this story! I will keep this note short and sweet and instead save my thanks for the following chapter which will conclude this story and Lena's story. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine, just this chapter, this plot line and Lena. **

**Please Read and Review and let me know what you think and i will endevour to bring you the final chapter as soon as i can. **

* * *

There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 24-Acceptance

As Lena finally gets some closure on her past, she comes face to face with another half human, half vampire who has questions and who wants them answered. Now. Penultimate Chapter of this story.

* * *

"Who?" Rosalie asked once she had regained the power of speech. Emmett picked up the hairbrush she had dropped and placed it on the desk that sometimes Rosalie worked from. He sighed and flopped down on the chair and Rosalie watched him with eyes that she knew were not kind.

"She has a birth certificate. Of course it's all inaccurate. Had one human actually bothered to give it a look over the course of the years then they would have seen something was wrong with it straight away. Carlisle mentioned that perhaps, because Lena will always look younger than you and me (and that is saying something) we should have all the relevant documentation on hand especially if we need fake ones. You can see why, at least we can have the originals so no tricky law enforcement find it—"

Rosalie tapped her nails against her desk impatiently and Emmett being the immortal that he was carried on knowing he was (as that mutt would have said had he been here) in deep shit.

"Well anyways I got it and there's a hospital in Vancouver where she was apparently sent to when she was put in the foster system so I went back there. Nobody of course saw the mother but there was a nurse that remembered that on that night there was a brutal car accident of a volleyball player that stayed with her despite the seven years that have passed. Teenage girl who looked like she had been ripped from the inside out, of course she's in her car which is pretty banged up and nobody at the hospital makes the connection Lena's put in the system a week later and nobody makes the connection. But the nurse thought it was odd because there were injuries not consistent with a car accident but of course…"

"Consistant with the birth of a half human, half immortal child"

"Yeah. Now the baby is found at the mall so doctors just thought the mother had abandoned it but what if Lena's Mom realised that this was not normal and got in a car at the hospital, I mean she was a teenager she might have been at the mall, I mean nine times out of then that is where teenagers and Alice usually hang out in the summer season. Then she realises that something is wrong and then tries to get to the hospital but Lena's coming out either way so Lena's out she makes it to her car and then rams it into a tree because she's bleeding so much."

Rosalie paused. She could see flaws in that plan but she had to admit that it had merits. She had only been a witness to the abortion that was Bella's c-section but they had planned for it to be a lot more controlled than that. She paused thinking about it again. She had no idea weather or not a girl could give birth to a creature like Lena in a mall without causing attention but if the girl was week, if she was bleeding and if she was struggling then Lena's instincts would take over and she could shock the girl into silence as she forced her own way out. She had seen the pictures.

Or perhaps this one had been more prepared. Perhaps there had been an Edward in the picture, someone who had loved her enough to help her but had not known enough to save that little human who had not known that she was a lamb having sex with a lion.

"Is there a father?" she asked finally. The mother was dead, it was unfortunate but it was in no way going to completely derail the life that Rosalie had just won in the same way a immortal male vampire would. Emmett gave a shrug.

"No idea? Theoretically there has to be one but nobody knows, could be a nomad passing through, could have been a newborn, hell could have been a member of the Volturi for all we know. Either way he's going to be virtually impossible to trace. But here…here there is a gravestone and a human family, two human people with three daughters who buried one. Here's closure. She didn't die giving birth to Lena. Was she on deaths door, yeah of course she was but Rosalie she wrapped her car around a tree. I mean I've never been in an accident of course but I think we both have caused enough to know how quickly humans die of one"

Rosalie tapped her nails again on the oak desk. There was another long pause as she thought about what Emmett was saying.

"And the human family?"

"Moved to Montreal. There's the two parents and two sisters, youngest one's graduating this year. They come up every Christmas to see their other daughter whose buried in the graveyard ten miles out of town. There is very little chance that they will ever come into contact with Lena and let's face it who would believe it. And somehow I don't see Lena exposing herself to that amount of danger."

Rosalie nodded again. "What's her name?" she asked finally. "The mother? What's her name?"

Emmett watched her for a second and then flipped open the file and spoke aloud the top line.

"Brooklyn Amelia Carter, commonly known as Brooke. She was sixteen when she died, report state however that there were several injuries not consistent with a car crash, potentially pregnant but the damage was as such that no pregnancy test ever gave the result that they wanted, plus…well I don't know what the venom must have done to the tissue and such…Carlisle thinks she would have been barely recognisable"

Rosalie held out her hand and Emmett passed her file. She read for a second and then turned the page to the shiny print out photo that was at the back. Rosalie didn't need to ask if this was her it was obvious by the picture.

She stared for a long time at the woman that had unintentionally given her the one thing she had thought lost to her. Woman was putting it mildly as well Rosalie considered. The girl was undeniably Lena's mother. They had the same blonde hair down to the last shade and the same colour eyes though Lena's were slightly darker. They had the same pointed chin though Rosalie noticed that the cheekbones that her daughter had must have been from the vampire. They had the same slim build though and while Lena's smile was not as bright and as bubbly as the one that was staring back at her there was something in the up turn of the lips that reminded her of the girl that was upstairs.

Rosalie sighed putting the photo back in the file. Suddenly she found that she didn't want to look at it anymore.

"What makes you so sure that Lena won't take one look at this and run back to La Push with the werewolf?" she asked deciding to name her worst fear. Emmett stared at her and Rosalie knew that this was something he had already considered before he had come to her. She could have laughed at how predictable she was had she not been so terrified.

"I don't think that it will happen" he said carefully. "I have been watching and I think she's here to stay but I think and to be fair I think you agree with me though I know you won't willingly admit it—I don't think she is going to run again. But I also think that if we don't give her the answers or at least some of the missing puzzle pieces then this is going to haunt her for the rest of her life and it's a life that doesn't end and you know what guilt is like when you don't have an outlet to process it"

Rosalie did know. Not through her own actions. She held not an ounce of remorse for what she had done to the King family. She had killed all her rapists and Royce and had dismantled the family she had been so desperate to join brick by brick. After all they had never been the same since a mysterious newspaper article had been printed details Royce's crimes as a rapist and his body had been found discarded on the streets with a few things missing…

She pulled herself out of a rather happy memory and thought again She might have no regrets, not even for the two guards she had killed but she supposed others in this family did. Edward in particular had struggled before he had met Bella. Jasper still had moments where he remembered with pure clarity all he had done under Maria. Alice had slipped twice with devastating consequences and Emmett had met his own 'singer' and Rosalie had, had to pick up the pieces of that one even till this day.

"Are you sure that Lena's going to want to see this? That this isn't enough to make her go again?"

"Rose" Emmett said leaning forwards and taking her hand in his. "If I thought that that would happen I would burn this. And who knows…perhaps she won't want to see this further but she deserves the right to know"

Rosalie couldn't deny he was right.

But damn him she didn't want to admit it.

Upstairs Lena giggled again.

* * *

Lena had been given the file after hunting, actually she had just finished her deer (nothing on the animals she had tasted in Mexico) when Emmett and Rosalie who had been there with her had turned to face her with such an expression that she was sure someone had died.

Turns out she was half right.

She was now sat in her room the file spread out in front of her and sure she was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. She had asked to be alone and Rosalie and Emmett had done that the latter slipping the file under the door so that she could read it in the privacy of her own room.

The photo was staring up at her and Lena found that she couldn't take her eyes off her. The photo of the girl that had given birth to her in an agony that she couldn't have understood, she probably hadn't have even known she was pregnant, Bella's pregnancy had taken almost a month and she only knew that because it was the longest time apparently the Cullen's had gone without blood. She had a human mother.

She had human grandparents, she had human aunts.

Realistically Lena knew she could not go to their house and introduce herself to them. But there were people out there that didn't know that the blonde volleyball player had created her. Before all this shit had hit the fan Lena had thought about the woman that had been her mother and over the years she had concocted many scenarios about her. She had been career driven and had given her up for some glamorous life in New York. Or she had been a teenager who had been forced to give her up. Or she had just been a cruel bitch who had not given a shit.

It was harsher seeing it now. It was even harsher seeing the life that Brooke Carter had left behind. Of college, of men who loved her or girls for all she knew, kids with a normal man, her father walking her down the aisle, holidays…all of it gone with the snap of a vampire's fingers. And here Lena was forced to pick up the pieces. Rodgers wasn't even her last name. It had been a name she had been given when she had been found by the girls loo by some poor Samaritan who had been forced to hand her over.

She leaned her head back against the wall and watched the sun sitting. She ignored the buzzing on her phone that she knew was Embry who had picked up the way she was feeling or he had been told by Jacob what was going on.

She sat there for a long time thinking about that and she didn't realise until she had to go to the bathroom that it was night and the sky had gone dark. She whimpered as she felt the ache in her body from sitting there for so long and she looked at herself in the mirror and saw the tears etched on her face for reasons that she couldn't describe.

But she knew then what she had to do.

* * *

Lena had been about to go down and speak to Rosalie and Emmett when she was aware that someone was sitting outside her room. Much like the previous day she had spent her time before going downstairs but she had not taken use of the shower or the bathroom. Instead she had gone down as she was in her leggings and an old jumper and her feet bare, her hair tied above her in a knot that was scraggily. It echoed how she felt at this moment and she was not in the mood to deal with Renesmee Cullen who was sat on the stairs that connected Lena's mini apartment to the rest of the house. She had grown more in the months that Lena had been gone, her hair was longer and her cheekbones more defined and she looked like a child of ten rather than the six year old Lena had last seen. Jacob was not with her. Lena did not know what to make of that. Or what to make of this silent child who sat there watching her with the brown eyes that seemed to speak of emotions that Lena did not fully grasp.

"Hi" Lena said feeling immensely awkward. She was not used to this silent treatment. At least not in this house. Privacy she had learnt was not something that came naturally to the Cullens.

"Are you staying now?"

Lena nodded. She was not sure of much still the ground beneath her slightly unsure but she thought that she was getting there. She sat down on the stairs next to Nessie who was staring at her with those wide eyes. She lifted her hand and Lena nodded. They both had gifts…she supposed this might be how they communicated. Clearly Nessie found her own gift easier to use than speaking and Lena too knew what it was like to retreat to the comfort of your own head because the outside world did nothing but confuse you.

"Why did you leave?"

Lena thought about it.

"There aren't really words" she said carefully. "But perhaps you can get understand better than I can"

And she took Nessie's hand in her own and allowed the girl to use the gifts that she had been given to see how Lena had felt, what she had done, Embry in all his glory and the sense of confusion that she still felt over who she was.

Nessie said nothing as she pulled her hand back.

"Lena" she said finally and when Lena looked at her she saw the brown eyes were filled with tears. "Please don't go"

And then she was showing Lena what it had been like. What Rosalie and Emmett had been like.

"Please don't go" Nessie said finally. "We understand each other. I mean there are others out there like us—"

"Hang on what?"

"Oh yeah, but I suppose Grandpa Carlisle will tell you about Nahuel and his sisters"

Lena stared at her but didn't comment, that would be a conversation that she was sure to have with Carlisle at some point in the near future. Here she had thought she and Nessie had been the only two created like that. The fact that there were more was more unsettling than Lena wanted to admit at this exact moment.

"Lena" Nessie said finally. "Please don't go. I want you to stay. I need someone who understands me. And I think you need someone to understand you. I think we could be sisters in a way. Having a big sister would be fantastic…can you do that for me? Please Lena?" she said.

Lena stared for a second and then grinned.

"Come here" she said and Nessie burrowed closer to her side, Lena wrapped an arm around her and pulled her even closer.

"I'm good where I am kiddo. Besides we have Jacob and Embry to think of, neither one of them could survive without us"

Nessie laughed. Lena grinned and suddenly she could breathe again. Because Nessie had shown her what her life was like in a way.

And she knew what she had to do.

* * *

The grave was soft to the touch, smooth under her fingertips and obviously well cared for. Lena stared at it for a long time staring at the resting place of her birth mother and unsure of what she could say and then when she pressed her hand against the stone she said all that she could say.

That she was sorry that this had happened to her, that she hoped that she understood that Lena had not intended to hurt her by giving birth to her. That she was happy now…that she had met a man and had a family behind her that she knew would support her, that she trusted beyond everything and anything she had been through. She poured everything she had out into that gravestone and when she stood up it was (despite the fact that it was a damn cliché) like a weight had lifted up over her shoulders.

Emmett was waiting in the car, Rosalie by the tap where you could fill pots with water and Lena slid into the car even as Rosalie didn't get in immediately afterwards. Emmett passed her a tissue and Lena realised that she was crying.

"Thanks Dad"

She said without meaning too. Didn't mean it wasn't true.

Emmett said nothing if his hands gripped the steering wheel enough to bend it into useless rubber then that was between him and whoever it was that would end up repairing his car (Edward).

* * *

Rosalie watched Lena go to the car before she moved forwards. She found despite her vanity and her pride there was something she wanted to do.

She touched her fingers to Brooke Caters grave and bent so that her head and more importantly her eyesight was level with the gold embossed writing on the grave.

There was something she needed to say to this silly teenager who had given her the one thing she thought she would never get.

"You don't know me" she said finally. "And you never will. I expect I am the thing you dreamed never possible. But I want you to know, my husband and I will spend every waking moment of eternity loving your daughter. And I will make sure that she feels loved and wanted and needed. And I will do my best to make sure she stays on the straight and narrow. And I want to thank you. Because while you didn't know what was going on, you did your best and because of that I get to raise and love your daughter. So from one mother to another Brooke, thank you"

She stared at the grave for a second and then she touched the roses (not her choice but Lena's) and then she turned away from the girl, from the grave and the past and towards her husband and her daughter who were waiting for her in the car.

* * *

**And there you go, please let me know what you think and i will see you for the final time for the final chapter! As always to all of you out there i wish you all the best health and happiness. **

**Next Chapter-As this story comes to a close the Cullens move on and Rosalie, Emmett and Lena take a step forwards into another differnt kind of perfect forever. (Potentially shorter chapter) **


	25. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

**Hi, so here is the final chapter! I am so pleased i got to the end of this and i want to thank all of you who have given your support to this story. I have really enjoyed this fandom and after a short break i will return with more stories. **

**Thank you to all of you who have enjoyed Lena's story. I hope you enjoy this chapter. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just the character of Lena and this plotline. **

**Please Read and Review and let me know what you think. **

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There In The Disappearing Light

Chapter 25-Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

As this story comes to a close the Cullen's move on and Rosalie, Emmett and Lena move on with them stepping forwards into a different kind of perfect forever. (Potentially shorter, final chapter)

* * *

They stayed until the end of the school year. They didn't stay until Lena graduated. Too much time had passed and if Lena was being honest with herself the more she thought about it, the more she wanted a clean break away from the school where she had been a misfit and an outcast, away from the makeshift gym and the car park and away from the memorial of the two girls she had killed that day it had felt like the weight of both the mortal and the immortal worlds were crashing down upon her.

She had voiced this quietly to Rosalie one morning and the next thing she had known about there was a plan put in place.

"Now it would look too suspicious if we all disappeared at once" Rosalie said firmly, they were in Lena's room going through her clothes to see what could be replaced with the new move. Lena personally thought there was nothing wrong with them and that was why she was sat cross legged on the bed and watching Rosalie but she had learnt during that mammoth shopping trip that it was best not to get in between Alice and clothes.

"So Carlisle and I have agreed, that it's best the family take three months and then regroup when he and Esme have the new house set up. And don't look like that Lena—" As Lena had looked alarmed at that news. "We've done it before. Usually during the war but…anyway sometimes we need a break. You'll looking at eternity with one family trust me you'll want a holiday after a decade or so"

Lena considered this and conceded the point.

"So how does it work? I mean?"

"Well" Rosalie said folding up a pair of jeans that despite being ancient (three weeks old) were apparently still decent enough to wear into a box labelled 'Keep'.

"We all have different spots in the world partial to us. I assume Bella and Edward will take Nessie and go back to Washington where Bella's father lives which means the dog will go and spend time with his admittedly not terrible father. Alice and Jasper might go South to check up on Peter and Charlotte, Jasper's friends and then they tend to go colder for their honeymoon periods, Alice likes Alaska and she tends to enjoy Paris for the fashion season so who knows. Esme and Carlisle will finalise plans on her island—"

"Hold up her what?"

"Carlisle bought her an island for an anniversary…or was it the end of the war? Either way he bought her an island"

Lena blinked, she had known the Cullen's were rich, after all they had, had a lifetime to plan ahead on the stock market and she wouldn't put it past Alice to be helping Apple prop up their revenues or the fact that they had more money than most countries but she had never even heard of people buying islands.

"Did Emmett get you an Island when we won the war?"

"Oh no, he got me a beaten up Jag. Classic in red, took me three years to scrounge together the parts to put it back together but Emmett knows I enjoy a good challenge."

Lena did not know what to say too that. She personally would rather have the island than the car though she supposed Embry might have had something to say about that. She changed the subject to distract herself. She had not spoken to Embry in a week or so—she didn't even know if he knew she was moving.

"So where do we go?"

"Well that depends. Emmett has always preferred to go to places with a rather unique hunting range, Africa is always a favourite, it gets tricky because of course a lot of the more exotic animals are in countries that we cannot easily live in because of the sun. Emmett and I have homes scattered across the world but we wondered if there was a place you wanted to go?"

Lena paused thinking. If she was being honest with herself she wanted to go back to Mexico but while she had gotten away with a hotel room somehow she didn't think that Rosalie would cope in a rickety room swarming with mosquito's unable to go outside. After all she couldn't even eat the food.

That alone was a tragedy in itself.

"I've never been to Africa" she said finally. "And…and…how opposed are you to a cruise?"

"Very" Rosalie said shuddering "All those people on a boat and all that grease dripping off the bacon. Ugh. Better you do that with your werewolf. So Africa? And then were? We could do a month in Africa and then Greece perhaps? We could meet up with Carlisle and Esme up there, they like travelling and I imagine that even if they don't go to the island they like to travel and Carlisle I imagine can get lost within the walls of a good historical site"

"You don't mind the sun?"

"Oh there are plenty of ways around that. Don't worry sweetheart we've been used to things like the sun for a long time. Sometimes though you need a break from the constant repetition of High School even if it is a kick to graduate over and over again and finally crack Math and Science"

"Math, Algebra. Trig and Chem all were invented to torture people" Lena said cracking one eye open. "And reading my report card was not cool Mom"

It came out before she could stop herself and Rosalie who had turned to go through the clothes she tended to slum around the house in paused. Lena dithered for a second and then decided to plough on nonetheless.

"So what does Africa have to offer in terms of hunting?" she said quickly.

Rosalie turned her perfect face serene and carried on the conversation as if nothing had happened. Lena decided not to push. After all there was an eternity for both of them ahead where they could get use to the moniker of mother and daughter.

And they carried on like that for a while longer until the chicken that Esme had put in the oven (she had refused to get store bought fried chicken claiming the fat content was horrific and either way she did a pretty good job of coating it herself) made Lena's stomach rumble for food in the same way that Nessie's would rumble for blood.

* * *

Rosalie was packing their stuff into carboard boxes while Emmett had been exiled to the window seat. Experience had told the men of the Cullen family that it was best to let the woman take over whenever they were in the process of moving especially after Jasper had accidently donated Alice's Spring/Summer Gucci collection to charity three years before they came to Forks and had been banished from his room for a resounding weak (and _God_ hadn't that been depressing for all of them). So now he was perched on the window seat with a stolen copy of Harry Potter because it didn't matter at what stage of the immortal life you were at, Harry Potter was a masterpiece.

He had mentioned that once in passing and Edward the consummate literary genius in the family had smacked his head through a wall miscalculated and had taken out most of Carlisle's study in the process. Emmett didn't care, he liked what he liked. Case in point was his wife who was going through their clothes with more precision than most armed forces did when finalising their invasion plans.

"Emmett didn't we have a conversation about plaid in the 1950s? And flower print in the 1960s? How you've managed to keep these past Alice I do not know"

"Says the woman who has a silk night thingy in every colour under the sun even though she doesn't sleep?"

"I thought you liked them?"

Emmett grinned taking a moment to remember and appreciate the memory of Rosalie in purple silk.

"Oh I did" he said grinning.

Rosalie smiled and went back to sorting through the clothes with a rather serene, almost smug expression. The last time Emmett had seen that expression etched on her face Nessie had been a newborn and Rosalie had been cooing about the fact that she had been right all alone and the baby did not kill Bella and that it was a baby—which granted at the time even Emmett had, had a hard time believing.

"So?" he asked because Rosalie was as good as keeping a piece of gossip to herself as Alice was at controlling her credit card during the January sales.

"So what?"

"So you've got that look on your face." He dropped the book and sped across the room so that his chest was flush against her back and his chin was resting on her shoulder. "That's the look that means somethings made you so pleased that your being forgiving about plaid and flower print" he dropped a kiss on her neck and she leaned backwards, reaching up to grab Emmett's face her fingers curling in the back of his head and hair making him almost purr with pleasure.

"She called me Mom"

Emmett stiffened for a heartbeat of a second and then relaxed grinning. He knew exactly who Rosalie was referring too and he knew how much it had meant to her to wait to hear that moniker. She had lived through Bella during her pregnancy and while she had been granted the name of aunt and a role in Nessie's life she had been robbed of the title that she had so dearly desired. Had Bella perished in childbirth and Edward at his own means then Emmett despite it all was under no illusions who would have protected that baby and who would have stepped in to call herself mother.

It did nothing to diminish the love that he felt for her. He had known the desire that Rosalie felt to be a mother. He knew how much Lena calling her Mom would mean to her.

"And your gonna be the best Mom to her that you can be" he whispered.

Rosalie smiled her whole body radiating happiness, the kind that Emmett wanted nothing more to do than to bask within. He adored this side of his wife who had gotten all that she had wanted. And if he had played a small part of getting her what she wanted then he was nothing short of thrilled that he had done that. He worshiped the ground that she walked on and while Lena had been the final piece to his happy ending he wouldn't lie and say that it had not been complete when it had just been him and Rosalie. But now as a father he found that even though he had thought a simple poor lad from Tennessee couldn't get more than what he had now he found he was surprised. Carlisle was right. If he was able to get away with being a husband, a father and to never lose either one of the girls he had come to depend on then…perhaps heaven for immortals like him did exist.

"I'm glad" was all he said finally and Rosalie nodded before elbowing him backwards.

"I suppose I have a cross to bear for my vanity thought" she said though there was a teasing lilt to her voice.

"Oh?"

"Yes, can you imagine trying to get werewolf stink out the carpet?"

Emmett laughed.

Rosalie smiled.

Somewhere upstairs he could here Lena pottering around in her room as the Imperial March from Star Wars played in the background. He could hear Alice and Jasper having a conversation over what to give Peter and Charlotte as a homestead gift (Charlotte partial to candle and Peter not stomaching the scent) and Carlisle and Esme alone in the study discussing designs over the house. He could hear Bella and Edward with Nessie over the river, his niece asleep and his brother reading to his wife (Shakespeare—God Emmett hoped that was code because if not it was just embarrassing). And even Jacob was in his little apartment Esme had seen to when he had come with them to Canada, half asleep listening some kind of cooking show rerun.

Life was perfect.

And life carried on.

* * *

They had been in Africa a month when Carlisle called and told Rosalie that the island was free. Lena who had been sat with Emmett on the beach chatting animatedly about wanting to go back to school when the fall came around had looked thrilled about the fact that she was part of a family that owned their very own private island and though Rosalie was loath to admit it she knew that there was one thing that her daughter had struggled to come to terms with when she had left Canada.

She told Carlisle they would be grateful to accept and then when she had some privacy she stared at the number that Edward had insisted she program into her phone.

She did not want to do this.

_Oh did she not want to do this. _

But she did it anyway because she had learnt from watching Bella and from watching Esme that a mother's love was concreate in the way that they put the needs of their children above their own needs. Or their wants.

"Lo?"

Ugh.

"Dog. I need you to do me a favour"

* * *

Lena had arrived at the island in awe. She had all be prepared to crash in her room but she saw someone sitting there waiting, clearly for the boat that they had carried them and her heart stopped a little.

"You did this for me?" she asked speaking instead of thinking.

"Yes" Rosalie…no Mom said. "But if you think that I am letting the two of you share a bedroom then you are pissing in the wind sweetheart. He gets the shed out back and he can cook his own food. I'll be damned if I am cooking him anything—" but she was cut off when Lena turned and hugged her. She felt Emmett press a hand down on her head and she could hear her thoughts enough to know that they were for once all on the same page.

Love. Respect. Family.

And she ran off to join Embry who was standing with his shy smile.

"That was nice" Emmett said finally his hand finding hers and giving it a squeeze.

"Yes I know" Rosalie said smiling and squeezing back.

"Hey look" Emmett said softly. "Our daughter is happy"

"Yeah I know…well done Dad"

"Thank you Mom"

They stared at each other for a moment and Emmett kissed her softly. Despite the lack of intensity he tried to say a lot of things in that kiss to Rosalie and judging by her smile he knew that he had gotten the point across.

Lena grinned at them and Emmett squeezed his wife's hand, she grinned back at him and then they crossed the beach to join their daughter in their small, slightly unusual but nonetheless perfect piece of their happy ever after.

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**And there you go, I hope you enjoyed this story and the character of Lena as much as i enjoyed writing her. I will hopefully see you all the next time i return to this fandom. I wish you all the health and happiness in the world and once again a massive thank you to everyone who has given this story your support. **

**Enjoy. **


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